How To Mute a YouTube Video

YouTube is one of the most resourceful sites for all types of videos, from comedy, entertainment, and music to sports, educational content, movies, and TV shows. YouTube is available on multiple platforms, including your TV, phone, desktop, or browser.

Despite introducing many advanced features over the last few years, YouTube still doesn’t have a built-in mute function for the mobile app. This can be inconvenient when you want to play a YouTube video without sound.

This post explains various ways to mute a YouTube video on a phone and a PC.

Overview of Muting a YouTube Video

Mute is an essential function of any video player, including YouTube. It enables you to turn off the video’s sound while playing. Disabling sound or muting can come in handy in various situations.

Supposing you’re interested in watching a specific video but don’t necessarily want to listen to the audio. In that case, you can mute the video.

Muting is also useful when watching something without distracting the people around you. Sometimes, lowering the volume may not work, and that’s when muting is necessary.

Unfortunately, YouTube’s mute function is only available on the web version. Meaning mobile app users have to find other ways to mute a YouTube video whenever they wish to.

Fortunately, you can use tips and tricks to achieve the same goal. Next, we’ll cover various methods to mute a YouTube video on a PC and when streaming on a smartphone.

Step-by-Step Guide to Muting a YouTube Video

Depending on your device, you can mute a YouTube video in various ways. We discuss these methods further below.

Method #1: Using a PC

As noted earlier, YouTube’s mute function is only available on the browser. Here’s how to use it.

1. Launch your PC’s web browser and navigate to YouTube.
2. Open the video you wish to stream on mute.
3. Click on the speaker icon at the lower-left corner of the video window next to the volume bar.
4. Ensure you see a line cut across the speaker to show it’s muted.

Besides clicking the mute button, there is another way to mute YouTube videos on a PC. Here’s how to do it.

1. Launch your PC’s web browser and navigate to YouTube.
2. Open the video you wish to watch on mute.
3. Hover your cursor over the speaker icon.
4. You’ll see the volume bar.
5. Slide the bar to the left to take the volume to zero so your video will have no sound.

Method #2: Using a Mobile Phone

Because YouTube doesn’t have a built-in function for its mobile app, users must use other creative ways to mute YouTube videos. One such method is using your phone’s volume function. Follow the steps below.

1. Launch the YouTube app on your phone.
2. Open the video you want to play on mute.
3. Press the volume-down button on the side edge of your phone.
4. Hold it until the volume bar reaches zero or slide the volume down bar to zero.

Depending on your phone, you can tap the note icon when you press the volume down button to mute the video.

If the above method isn’t convenient, try using the desktop site on your phone. Here’s how.

1. Open your phone’s web browser, in this case Chrome.
2. Navigate to YouTube.
3. Tap the browser’s three vertical dots at the top right corner.
4. Check the “Desktop site” option at the bottom of the menu.
5. Open the video you want to mute.
6. Tap the speaker icon at the bottom-left corner of the video window to mute.

Summary

YouTube’s mute feature is only available on the desktop site. Luckily, there are a few ways to mute a YouTube video when streaming on your mobile phone.

The first is to use the phone’s volume down button. The other is to use the desktop site option on your phone so you can mute using the native mute function.