Right now, Chrome users still don’t have a direct way of muting their noisy tabs. However, there’s a way for you to easily find out which of your tabs are making those unwanted sounds.

Consider this scenario. You’re listening to a YouTube song while browsing for other related content. While you are browsing, there seems to be a new sound that appears to be overlapping with the one that you’re currently listening. Unfortunately, you’ve opened too many tabs so you don’t know which is which.

So, how do you stop it? Well, it’s simple.

In the latest version of Chrome, you can either track down your noisy tabs using the browser’s built-in audio indicator or you can opt to install a third-party browser extension.

Here’s how:

Find the tab with the speaker icon

If you happen to be loading two or more tabs on your browser, simply find the tab that shows a speaker icon. Simply put, the speaker icon is an indicator. It indicates which tab is currently playing a sound or audio.

Once you track down that tab, the rest is up to you. You can choose to close the tab or keep it open. If you choose the latter, make sure to find and mute its embedded audio. This usually happens if you are loading sites with audio-enabled ads as well as those sites with embedded song playlists and videos.

Use MuteTab – a third-party browser extension

• Go to the Web Store then download and install MuteTab.
• Once installed, click the extension’s icon on your browser’s omnibar. The extension will show all of the tabs that are possibly making noise. As you can see on the list, the extension has separated your current tab from your background tabs.
• To stop a tab, just click on the “X” icon right next to it. You can also choose to stop a tab via context menu. (Just right-click on the noisy tab then select “MuteTab” on the list of options.)

Keep in mind that stopping a tab also means that you’re force closing it. Just do this if ever you think that leaving that particular tab open is no longer necessary.

Note: MuteTab is supposed to be an extension that can mute tabs but for some reason, its “mute” function no longer works.

While the first method may appear more practical, this extension can help you stop or close all noisy tabs in just one click which is a real time-saver.