BetterYoutube is a Chromium extension (Edge/Chrome) that improves the YouTube watch experience by reducing distractions and adding practical controls directly on the page.
It focuses on:
- Keeping recommendations/comments usable without infinite-scroll traps
- Making Picture-in-Picture easier to access
- Fast, reliable playback speed controls (with a small on-video badge)
- Optional SponsorBlock auto-skip
- Optional Focus Mode to hide distraction surfaces
| Better Scrolling Scrollable containers for recommendations + comments |
PiP In-player button + popup trigger |
Speed Controls Keyboard shortcuts + on-video badge |
SponsorBlock Auto-skip sponsors/intros/outros/interactions |
Focus Mode Hide Shorts/comments/recommendations |
📜 Better Scrolling
- Replaces infinite scroll with tidy scrollable containers for recommendations and comments
- Avoids nested scrollbars by enforcing a single scroller in the watch sidebar
📺 Picture-in-Picture (PiP)
- Adds a PiP button to YouTube’s player controls
- Trigger PiP from the extension popup (“Pop Out Video”)
⏩ Playback Speed Controls
- On-video speed badge showing the current playback rate
- Keyboard shortcuts (defaults): Slower
s, Fasterd, Resetr - Customizable speed step (default
0.25x) - Click the on-video badge to reset to
1.00x
⏭️ SponsorBlock Auto-Skip
- Uses the public SponsorBlock community database
- Skips segment categories: Sponsor, Intro, Outro, Interaction
- Lightweight caching to reduce repeated network calls
🎯 Focus Mode
- Toggle hiding of: Shorts, Comments, Recommendations (including end screen)
- Uses CSS-based hiding to reduce visual flashes during navigation
- Download or clone this repository
Chrome
2. Open chrome://extensions/
3. Enable Developer mode
4. Click Load unpacked and select the extension/ folder
Microsoft Edge
2. Open edge://extensions/
3. Enable Developer mode
4. Click Load unpacked and select the extension/ folder
Open a YouTube video, then click the BetterYoutube extension icon.
- PiP: use the popup button, or the in-player PiP control
- Scrolling: enable/disable Better Scrolling in the popup
- Speed: configure step + keybindings in the popup, then use the shortcuts on YouTube
- SponsorBlock: toggle auto-skip in the popup
- Focus Mode: enable Focus Mode, then choose what to hide
BetterYoutube requests only what it needs:
https://www.youtube.com/*— injects UI/behavior changes on YouTube pageshttps://sponsor.ajay.app/*— fetches SponsorBlock skip segmentsstorage— saves your settingsactiveTab+scripting— runs popup-triggered actions on the current tab
Issues and pull requests are welcome.