Republishing due to Chrome Updates

Just to put this in context, of course after I published this I located the email. Here's what I am referring to. This email was sent in June from support@articulate.com:

We’ve released an important update for Storyline 2 that we thought you’d want to know about.

Recently, some commonly used browsers, including Chrome and Safari, started blocking autoplay of audio and video content on websites. Chrome has temporarily rolled back this change for audio, but it will be made permanent in October. These changes impact audio and video in e-learning courses created in Storyline.

With the latest Storyline 2 update, learners using Chrome 66+ or Safari 11 will see a play button when they launch or resume a course with a video on the first slide. Videos on other slides should autoplay as expected.

You’ll need to install the latest update and republish your courses to ensure that learners can play video content across browsers. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Best,
The Articulate Team

Hi Madeline,

You got it! 

We added support for Google’s new audio policy in the May 24, 2018 update for Storyline 2. You'll want to install the latest update and publish your projects again to make sure they work when Google stops autoplaying audio in Chrome 70.

We’re also working on a tool that'll let you mass update existing Storyline 2 courses without republishing them. Stay tuned! We’ll update this article as soon as the tool is ready.

That's fantastic, thank you Ashley! With this update, I'm assuming we should begin republishing without this tool since it isn't ready yet? We have about 90 courses we have to republish....

Hi Madeline! 

Yes, you can begin republishing your Storyline 2 courses now, if you'd like. And as Ashley mentioned, we'll post an update once the "updater tool" is ready to go. 

Perfect, thank you both so much for the help/support. You all are awesome! 

Is it just SL 2 courses?

Hi Tricia!

We use SL2 currently, so that's all that I know. I apologize that I don't know if it applies to other versions, but hopefully one of the staff members can help you out! 

Maddie

Hi Tricia,

If you're using Storyline 3 or Storyline 360, the Updater is available for those two versions. This article will walk you through using it.  You'll also want to check that any new courses you're publishing are being published with the latest update of each (Storyline 3, build 3.5.16548.0 and Storyline 360, build 3.20.16814.0). 

Is there a way to check in the software itself to make sure I have the latest update? When I try to install it from the link above it asks me to uninstall the software?

Absolutely, Madeline!  You can check by going to the "Help" Tab -> "About Articulate Storyline". You'll look for those build numbers I listed above. 

When I do that, mine (It's Storyline 2) says Update 13: 1804.2716 which doesn't match the link that you provided above. However when I click on that link for Storyline 2 to upgrade it asks me to uninstall. Is this correct, should I uninstall the product to get the update?

Hi Madeline, that's the right update number. You'll see Storyline 2 Update 13 Build 1804.2716. 

If you're publishing with that version, the courses should be working in Chrome. If they're not, could you share a link with us to test out how the course is working in Chrome? 

Thanks Ashley! Our courses are currently working, just making sure I have the right version before I start republishing the ones I did with a previous version prior to the October release date of the new chrome! Thanks so much for your help! 

No worries Madeline.

You can always find the details and the latest version information for Storyline 2 at this link.

 For confirmation, do you only need to republish if you have audio or video on the first slide or within the course? Or do all courses need to be republished even if there isn't any audio or video?

Also, would screen recordings be affected by this? I currently use screen capture but then hide the video on the timeline so it appears as a screenshot.

Hi Nikki, 

You can republish with the latest update of Storyline 2, 3 or 360 or use the Articulate Updater as detailed here.

The issue was specific to video/audio on the first slide, but our team is looking into an issue where audio/video on later slides isn't playing when the user has yet to interact with the course.

If there is no audio/video throughout your entire course, there isn't a need to republish for that fix, but each update is always chock full of fixes and sometimes new features you may want. So look at the version history for more details (Storyline 3, build 3.5.16548.0 or Storyline 360, build 3.20.16814.0). 

If you're not using the videos on your slides, your screen recordings should be fine. 

Perfect, thank you so much!

Does anyone know the anticipated date for this new release from Chrome? Or has it already happened?

Hi Madeline!

This discussion is originally about how Google stopped autoplaying audio in the original release of Chrome version 66, and Chrome is now on version 69. 

The article I linked above details what you can do if you're having trouble with audio playing correctly in Chrome. Let me know if you're still running into issues -- I'll be happy to help!

Hi Alyssa,

I started this conversation because I was trying to convert my courses. We have yet to upload our courses because the articulate uploader only changes them, it doesn't zip them so we still are doing all of that. I was just wondering if chrome has pushed the update that we were working towards with that updater. 

Hey Madeline,

Thanks for clarifying. Sounds like you may be referring to the sentence in the article Alyssa shared, that states: Google will stop autoplaying audio again in October 2018 when Chrome 70 is released. 

My Chrome is up-to-date with Version 69.0.3497.100, so it seems that Chrome 70 has not been released yet. A quick search states it will begin rolling out October 16th, so sounds like soon :)