The article mentions removing the audio track. Is that required for this to work or would it play if it's included or is that just for efficiency? i.e. will Safari simply ignore it if it's included?
https://webkit.org/blog/6784/new-video-policies-for-ios/
"<video> elements will be allowed to autoplay without a user gesture if their source media contains no audio tracks."
"<video muted> elements will also be allowed to autoplay without a user gesture."
"If a <video> element gains an audio track or becomes un-muted without a user gesture, playback will pause."
EDIT: Context is unclear about whether the parent's guidance is about <video> or <img>. No idea what <img> does. I sure hope it doesn't play due to the wasteful audio track, so that people are forced to do it right instead of lazy, though!