IMPORTANT! - a fix if you have a PLAY button appearing at start of courses

I am having the same issue with the play button, however I have no audio on my first slide so I don't understand why this is happening (There is audio in one video in my elearning)  I have tested the file in ScormCloud and it works no issues, no play button appears. Also, we were able to play the course from our LMS in Internet Explorer with no issues. Both my Chrome and Storyline 360 have the latest updates. 

Hi Chrissy!

I am seeing a video on the first Introduction slide called Value Prop Video. This video is causing the play button to appear when you test the content in Chrome.

After a while, learners may stop seeing the play button as Chrome's Media Engagement Index (MEI) learns that they allowed audio to play on previous visits to the same site. When that happens, audio will automatically play as it did in earlier versions of Chrome. This explains why you're seeing the Play button in some environments, and you aren't seeing it in others.

For more information on this, please check out the update Justin shared here. 

Another thing can the grey background with the play button be forced transparent? That would work for me. 

Hey Mike!

Do you have audio or video on the first slide of your course? If so, you may encounter a gray Play button in Chrome. This should happen no matter what version of Storyline you're using. 

If you do have audio or video on the first slide, you can create your own "Play button" by adding a new blank slide to the beginning of the course. On that slide, add a custom button, and design the slide however you'd like. 

Then, trigger the button to jump to the next slide when the user clicks it.

Publish the file, and test it in Chrome. Now, you shouldn't see the gray button with the transparent overlay. Let me know if that works! 

I'm using Storyline 360 and testing in Chrome on a PC.  I have two different Storyline files that I'm working with. One was created in Storyline 360 and the other was created in Storyline, but upgraded to Storyline 360.  They are behaving differently. One shows an opening gray screen with a white circle and the other shows a black screen with a white play triangle. I've attached screenshots. In both cases I have an opening screen with autoplaying audio.  I tried adding a blank screen at the beginning, which prevented the black and gray screens, but then the audio doesn't play.  I particularly don't like the gray screen because there is no indication you have to click on it.  Any suggestions?

Hey Nancy,

Looks like you may have one course with Modern Player and one with the Classic Player perhaps?

I'd also check to see if the Publish Format may be different since you mentioned one was upgraded. HTML5/Flash vs Flash/HTML5 perhaps?

If you need us to take a look, feel free to share the .story files.

A huge thank you for this tip! 

Indeed, the play button is appearing when the course begins by a sound. 

I added a white slide during 0,1 sec with the "next slide when timeline ends" trigger and it works perfectly. 

Hey everybody. I'm excited to let you know that we just released update 5 for Storyline 3! It includes new features and fixes - check them all out here.

One of the fixes addresses an issue where the Play Button that you see at the beginning of your courses to address browser autoplay rules for media was not accessible.  Sorry for the oversight here!

Here’s where you can download and install the latest version of Storyline 3. Let me know how you make out!

Hi Mike, Did you ever find a way to make the grey background transparent?

Hi Ianitza,

You may also want to reach out to Mike directly - I see he has the "Contact Me" button enabled on his profile. I hope he's able to point you in the right direction for any modifications he made.