Microsoft has introduced a brand new feature in Microsoft Edge browser that enables the blocking of auto-playing media controls.

The software giant announced such capabilities in the browser a few weeks ago, promising the new Chromium-based browser would be able to provide additional controls to users to be able to block media that starts playing automatically when loading websites.

The organization has thus released this selection because of its experimental Canary build underneath the form of a flag that needs to be enabled manually from the flag configuration screen.

The flag is known as "Limit Media Autoplay" and it is available starting with Edge Canary build 77.0.211.0.

"Algorithmically limits certain websites from playing media automatically. Most popular websites will remain unaffected," the flag reveals.

Per-site media controls

As Microsoft itself explains, the media auto-playing feature would still operate on popular websites, so users might want to install third-party extensions to block it here as well.

However, Microsoft is also working on per-site controls that would technically make it easy for everyone to configure whether or not to block media that plays automatically on-page load for every website or not. No ETA has been provided, but we ought to expect such capabilities within the coming weeks.

The media autoplay blocker is going to be available on both Windows and Mac, because the flag notes.

Microsoft Edge, that is now according to Chromium, is available in in preview on both Windows and Mac. So far as Windows is worried, the browser could be installed on older Windows and on Windows 10.

Microsoft is believed to be planning a Linux version of the browser as well, albeit for the moment, this type of project is not yet been confirmed. However, given Edge is dependant on Chromium, there's no technical limitation for the app to launch on Linux too.