Five Browser Extensions Add Features to YouTube

Wired published a guide to five browser extensions that add controls and display options to YouTube. The extensions run in Google Chrome and compatible Chromium browsers including Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi.

Improve YouTube lets users hide the sidebar or video thumbnails, change the color of the progress bar, and add new search-result tabs. Additional options include hiding YouTube Shorts, reversing playlist order, pausing videos when switching tabs, and creating custom keyboard shortcuts.

Enhancer for YouTube provides sliders for playback speed, video quality, and volume. It also supplies custom themes, pop-up and mini players, and a console for loading user-written code.

PocketTube organizes subscriptions into groups and subgroups that can receive custom icons. The extension generates playlists for each group and offers a column-based Deck view along with extra sorting filters.

Turn Off the Lights dims the browser area around the active video. Users can adjust the dimming opacity, choose the background color, add a soft glow, apply video filters, and change volume with the mouse wheel.

DeArrow replaces video titles and thumbnails with crowdsourced alternatives intended to be more descriptive. When no user suggestions exist, the extension can display random thumbnails and titles without emojis.