Autoplay muted video fails after page reload

[hincha]

hincha last edited by

Android version: Android 16

Phone model: POCO X6 Pro 5G

Opera version: 100.2.5122.89341

Test page: https://app.uc0.ru/test-video/

Ad blocker: The issue occurs both with the built-in ad blocker enabled and disabled.

Data savings: Disabled.

Description

I believe this is a bug related to HTML5 video autoplay.

The page is a minimal test case created specifically to demonstrate the issue. It contains only a muted background video configured for autoplay:

<video autoplay muted loop playsinline preload="auto">

Steps to reproduce

1. Open https://app.uc0.ru/test-video/ by typing or pasting the URL into the Opera address bar.
2. The video does not autoplay and only the first frame is displayed.
3. Click the "Open via link" button on the page.
4. The page opens again via link navigation..
5. The video autoplays correctly.
6. Reload the page.
7. The video no longer autoplays and again only the first frame is displayed.

Expected behavior

The muted autoplay video should start playing automatically regardless of whether the page is opened directly, opened via a link, or reloaded.

Actual behavior

The video autoplays only when the page is opened via a link.

When the page is opened directly from the address bar or after a page reload, the video remains paused on the first frame.

If video.play() is called from JavaScript after the page loads, Opera throws:

NotAllowedError: play() failed because the user didn't interact with the document first.

This is unexpected because the video is muted and should satisfy the autoplay policy.

Additional observations

• Google Chrome on the same phone works correctly in all cases.
• Opera GX on the same phone also works correctly.
• Opera for Android Stable reproduces the issue.
• Opera Beta reproduces the issue as well.
• Opera on Windows plays the video correctly.
• Opera on iPhone also plays the video correctly.

The issue appears to be specific to Opera for Android and depends on the navigation method: direct navigation (typing the URL or reloading the page) vs. link navigation.