MuteTab

How to install an extension Open in Chrome Web Store

CRX ID

acofndgbcimipbpeoplfjcapdbebbmca

Status

Live on Store

Description from extension meta

Take control of noisy tabs: mute by default, blacklists, and more

Image from store

Description from store

June 2016 update: MuteTab now mutes, knows when tabs are playing sound, and includes new features such as showing only recently noisy tabs, mute by default, and blacklists.

The extension was first released in 2011 as an experiment in providing browsers with a better sound management experience given limitations imposed by Chrome and Flash. This latest version fixes previous functionality and adds new features thanks to work done since then that gave Chrome audio indicators and tab muting and made that accessible to extensions.

MuteTab's features include:

* Shows only tabs that are playing sound now or did so recently. This is great if you have a large number of tabs open, they span across windows, or you want help identifying what was playing sound.
* Mute all tabs, background tabs, or incognito tabs by default.
* Buttons and keyboard shortcuts to mute all tabs, mute background tabs, and unmute all tabs.
* Set exceptions to muting behavior via whitelists and blacklists.
* Add your music player to a "music list" so that it gets excluded when muting all or background tabs.
* "Privacy mode" will mute all of your tabs (including your music) when you want silence; you can then unmute tabs you want to listen to. You can assign it to a keyboard shortcut, too.
* Disable automuting lets you temporarily disable all of the above behavior.
* See a count of noisy tabs you avoided hearing by hovering over the "MuteTab" text in the top left corner.
* Experimental "music ducking" feature will mute your music for you when you watch a video and unmute it afterward.

Note: Chrome made various changes since this was released. You need to either use this extension to mute/unmute or Chrome's mute site site feature and not both.

Recent Release History

6/26/2023 v3.0.11 - Remove request for unused tabCapture permission

8/5/2019 v3.0.10 - Remove unsafe-eval permission request

8/5/2017 v3.0.9 - Fix for previous fix to prevent extension from dying

7/23/2017 v3.0.8 - Added error checking that will hopefully prevent the extension from dying

5/19/2017 v3.0.7 - New keyboard shortcut available to mute background tabs and unmute the current tab

4/12/2017 v3.0.6 - Fixed a bug that prevents muting a whitelisted tab when opened in a new tab

3/19/2017 v3.0.5 - Mutes all/background tabs when settings are loaded if that is the muting behavior.

11/20/2016 v3.0.3 - Doesn't mute tab if mute background tabs is set and tab is dragged to different window.

11/20/2016 v3.0.2 - Made UI wider and left-aligning menu items on the bottom so the UI looks better at various resolutions. Let me know if butons get cut off (ideally with a screenshot) so I can make it wider if needed.

6/2016 v3.x

Latest reviews

Myron Baxter 2025-07-28: I loved this extension, but ALL MIGHTY CHROME decided I can no longer use it!
Sean Flesch 2025-03-21: Love this app. If anyone has any recommended alternatives for when this no longer works, let me know.
Daniels 2024-12-20: It needs to be updated (-__-) I still use this and it works perfectly the way it is. Otherwise chrome keeps turning it off... Such an annoying and demanding browser... (-__-)
Nelson Martinho 2024-10-20: Works like a charm!
Irina Isha 2024-02-24: Does exactly what it needs to do. Has a simple option to mute all tabs by default, which is what I was looking for and what no other addon provides.
Curtis Laabs 2023-09-29: "Music ducking" was exactly what I was looking for! I like to listen to music while I study, but frequently my online classes will have short videos mixed in with the reading. This automatically mutes my music while I watch the video and then unmutes when the video is over. Solved a major annoyance for me. Thank you!
Curtis Laabs 2023-09-29: "Music ducking" was exactly what I was looking for! I like to listen to music while I study, but frequently my online classes will have short videos mixed in with the reading. This automatically mutes my music while I watch the video and then unmutes when the video is over. Solved a major annoyance for me. Thank you!
Samuel Sobreira 2022-11-17: Good
Samuel Sobreira 2022-11-17: Good
Saurabh 2022-10-29: it's really wonderfull extension for tabs you can use this when you can't mute incomming sound from page directly.
Saurabh 2022-10-29: it's really wonderfull extension for tabs you can use this when you can't mute incomming sound from page directly.
eajohnson 2022-10-07: Mutes tabs when you switch a different tab to the foreground, but crucially does not _unmute_ that previously muted tab if you move it back to the foreground. It's hard to understand why it hasn't been designed so allow you to simply have the foreground tab unmuted and all others muted, automatically. Perhaps it's an API limitation, but it renders this useless for me.
eajohnson 2022-10-07: Mutes tabs when you switch a different tab to the foreground, but crucially does not _unmute_ that previously muted tab if you move it back to the foreground. It's hard to understand why it hasn't been designed so allow you to simply have the foreground tab unmuted and all others muted, automatically. Perhaps it's an API limitation, but it renders this useless for me.
Joy 2021-01-04: Amazing, just a click.
Joy 2021-01-04: Amazing, just a click.
THYCR3ATOR 2021-01-01: the keyboard command options didnt show up for me in my extensions page, but I tried hitting alt+shift+m and I'll be damned, its almost like the Chrome devs didn't disable a useful feature in place of a shittier one. I'd recommend to anyone in need.
THYCR3ATOR 2021-01-01: the keyboard command options didnt show up for me in my extensions page, but I tried hitting alt+shift+m and I'll be damned, its almost like the Chrome devs didn't disable a useful feature in place of a shittier one. I'd recommend to anyone in need.
Damon Davis 2020-11-30: Works perfectly!
Damon Davis 2020-11-30: Works perfectly!
Deserted Land 2020-10-30: I'm using this extension for the new Microsoft Edge browser (which only has the option of muting tabs and not muting sites) and so I tried this extension, and it's great! Aside from muting sites, there are other options as well. My favorite one is muting tabs by default in incognito mode. Really really useful!
I_love_victorique 2020-09-27: pretty good! Remember you can change shortkey at chrome://extensions/shortcuts. The small window show all playing tab is very useful.
I_love_victorique 2020-09-27: pretty good! Remember you can change shortkey at chrome://extensions/shortcuts. The small window show all playing tab is very useful.
Jakab Gipsz 2020-07-20: Perfect for muting all sites by default and only whitelisting a few ones. Combined with Disable HTML5 AutoPlay (Reloaded), they make the internet far less noisy and annoying.
Jakab Gipsz 2020-07-20: Perfect for muting all sites by default and only whitelisting a few ones. Combined with Disable HTML5 AutoPlay (Reloaded), they make the internet far less noisy and annoying.
hang feng 2020-03-14: Very good software. Very helpful.
hang feng 2020-03-14: Very good software. Very helpful.
DLS DLS 2020-03-08: i hate this thing, i like its competitor i wanna mute all sound not pick one at a time, stupid windows lost mytabs when had to reinstall!
DLS DLS 2020-03-08: i hate this thing, i like its competitor i wanna mute all sound not pick one at a time, stupid windows lost mytabs when had to reinstall!
Sky 2020-01-12: Excellent plugin. Really helpful!
Sky 2020-01-12: Excellent plugin. Really helpful!
Lee Weii 2019-10-28: This plug in is what i have been waiting for, the best
Lee Weii 2019-10-28: This plug in is what i have been waiting for, the best
Jawhar Aslan 2019-10-07: only tested if it automatically mutes incognito tabs and it does. Of course you have to enable it in "manage extensions" for incognito mode and on a fresh install you should open the incognito mode only after installation.
Jawhar Aslan 2019-10-07: only tested if it automatically mutes incognito tabs and it does. Of course you have to enable it in "manage extensions" for incognito mode and on a fresh install you should open the incognito mode only after installation.
mertcan 2019-06-25: very usefull thank you very much
mertcan 2019-06-25: very usefull thank you very much
Conta Secundária 2019-05-19: Perfeito!!
Lee Eun Eun 2019-05-17: util
Lee Eun Eun 2019-05-17: util
Lee Hodsdon 2019-05-07: Alas, this is an incomplete solution. I selected muting by default because I don't want sites blaring their noise at me when I happen to visit the site. Alas, unmuting the site is clumsy. I cannot use the volume control in the video: it will change from mute/unmute status but has no effect on the actual muting of the document (web page). The speaker icon in the tab is no longer a user-clickable object, so no changing the muting there. Right-clicking on the tab and selecting Mute/Unmute site has no effect (once this extension is in control). I have to click on this extension's toolbar icon, carefully place the mouse cursor over the dim speaker icon, and click it to change from mute to unmute. This method, the only one that works, is clumsy and error-prone. I will have to find the extension that added a toolbar icon to do the mute/unmute function. I remember using it before because this extension doesn't have a one-click mute toggle for its toolbar icon. Pity that I have to add another extension because this one is incomplete.
Lee Hodsdon 2019-05-07: Alas, this is an incomplete solution. I selected muting by default because I don't want sites blaring their noise at me when I happen to visit the site. Alas, unmuting the site is clumsy. I cannot use the volume control in the video: it will change from mute/unmute status but has no effect on the actual muting of the document (web page). The speaker icon in the tab is no longer a user-clickable object, so no changing the muting there. Right-clicking on the tab and selecting Mute/Unmute site has no effect (once this extension is in control). I have to click on this extension's toolbar icon, carefully place the mouse cursor over the dim speaker icon, and click it to change from mute to unmute. This method, the only one that works, is clumsy and error-prone. I will have to find the extension that added a toolbar icon to do the mute/unmute function. I remember using it before because this extension doesn't have a one-click mute toggle for its toolbar icon. Pity that I have to add another extension because this one is incomplete.
Blutzen 2019-02-16: Brought back the functionality Chrome used to have of individual tab muting that I'd been missing for months, but unfortunately the instructions for changing keyboard shortcuts seems outdated.
Blutzen 2019-02-16: Brought back the functionality Chrome used to have of individual tab muting that I'd been missing for months, but unfortunately the instructions for changing keyboard shortcuts seems outdated.
osearth esp 2018-11-19: LOVE THIS & Highly Recommend it!! Best way to find out which of my 40++ tabs is making noise and running chewing CPU. this is my favourite extension second to only "?dBlock. I wish there was a lite version that only had the ability to jump over to noisy tabs because that is all i use it for.
osearth esp 2018-11-19: LOVE THIS & Highly Recommend it!! Best way to find out which of my 40++ tabs is making noise and running chewing CPU. this is my favourite extension second to only "?dBlock. I wish there was a lite version that only had the ability to jump over to noisy tabs because that is all i use it for.
Laura Scott 2018-11-05: This plugin is great for muting background tabs. But it also mutes the active tab, and there's no setting to change that. If you mute, you end up having to unmute manually (in an awkward right-click menu) or whitelist the whole domain. I find I'm constantly scrambling to unmute a page to hear an ongoing video. If I could just know that when I play a video on a site I'm on, it's unmuted by default, and that page gets muted if I go to another tab, that would be the bee's knees.
Laura Scott 2018-11-05: This plugin is great for muting background tabs. But it also mutes the active tab, and there's no setting to change that. If you mute, you end up having to unmute manually (in an awkward right-click menu) or whitelist the whole domain. I find I'm constantly scrambling to unmute a page to hear an ongoing video. If I could just know that when I play a video on a site I'm on, it's unmuted by default, and that page gets muted if I go to another tab, that would be the bee's knees.
Alex Doster 2018-09-16: Thank you really helped!
Alex Doster 2018-09-16: Thank you really helped!
Anonymous 2018-06-09: Nossa!!! Muito bom bom funciona como prometido

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