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📌 A pinned video with nothing behind it
Pin on top used to float the video in a window that belonged to the mini
player window, which minimized itself to get out of the way. It could not
simply close: a floating window dies with the page that opened it. That cost
twice. A minimized page barely draws, so the floating video stuttered at a few
frames a second, and the minimized window stayed in the taskbar.
The pin is now the browser's own picture-in-picture, and nothing is left behind
it. While the mini player is open, the extension quietly gets the same video
ready in YouTube's embedded player, in a page of its own that has no window at
all. Pin on top floats the video from there, and the mini player window
closes: no window, no tab, nothing in the taskbar. The picture runs smoothly
with no title bar over it, keeps the video's shape as you resize it, and starts
where the mini player was, at its volume and speed. A video pinned while paused
floats paused.
🌙 It keeps playing when you close the browser (for mini-player)
Close every browser window, not just the one you were in, and the pinned video
stays on screen, still playing. Chrome keeps running after its last window,
with its icon by the clock. To stop the video, close the floating window; to
stop Chrome, quit it from that icon.
One thing to know: that is what the new background permission does, and
Chrome applies it to the whole browser, not only while a video floats. With the
extension installed, Chrome keeps running in the background after you close it,
and on Windows it also starts with your computer.
It also depends on a setting of Chrome's own, Continue running background
apps when Google Chrome is closed (Settings → System), which the
extension cannot see. So if the mini player is the only window open when you
pin, it is minimized rather than closed, and closing it is left to you. Bring
it back up and it says where the video went; Bring the video back puts it
in a mini player again.
🎛 A remote control in the popup
The floating window shows the picture and none of YouTube's controls, so while
a video floats they come to the popup. Click the extension's icon and a remote
sits at the top of your list: the video's title and channel, a position slider,
back and forward ten seconds, the next video in To Watch, volume and mute,
speed and quality. Back to mini player reopens the mini player window at
the second the video had reached, and Stop closes the floating video.
Asking for another video while one floats, from the popup or from YouTube,
plays it in the same floating window instead of opening a second one.
⚖️ What the pin gives up
- Captions do not show. YouTube draws them over its player, and only the
picture floats. - The floating player is YouTube's embedded one, so it loads what an
embedded player always loads, including any ad YouTube serves before the
video. - Pin too early and it pins the older way. Getting the floating player
ready takes a few seconds. If you pin before it is ready, or YouTube will not
play that video in an embed, the same click floats the video from the mini
player window, which is minimized while it floats; closing that window closes
the video. Escno longer closes the mini player. It closed the old floating
window, which is gone. Close the floating video with its own ×, or with
Stop in the popup.
🔐 Three new permissions, no new warning
The extension used to ask for storage alone. The pin needs three more:
offscreen: the windowless page the pinned video floats from.declarativeNetRequestWithHostAccess, with thewww.youtube.comhost
permission: one rule that gives that page's embedded player the Referer
YouTube requires of embeds, for requests made outside any tab only.background: keeps Chrome running after its last window, as above.
None of them adds a warning. Chrome shows the same single one as in 3.1.0,
Read and change your data on m.youtube.com, www.youtube.com, and
youtube.com, so the update installs like any other, with nothing to approve.
The extension still talks to nobody but YouTube. There is one new request:
while a mini player is open, it loads youtube.com/embed/<id> in its own
windowless page, naming the video and nothing else.
👋 No more JobsMatch banner
The JobsMatch banner is gone from the top of the popup.So are the setting
that hid it and the supporter code, whose only job was to unlock that setting.
If you entered a code, the popup still remembers it and will not show you the
Ko-fi reminder. The reminder itself now just says thanks, and following it to
Ko-fi counts as an answer, so it does not ask again.
🐛 Fixed
- With Glass on, the tag suggestions slid under the next video's card, so
the tag you wanted could be hidden behind it. The card you are typing in now
sits above its neighbours.
✨ Smaller things
- A clearer name in Chrome and on the Web Store: Watch Later Enhanced: Save
YouTube Videos & Mini Player. - Firefox, said plainly: saving and the list work there, but the mini
player does not, since Firefox does not run the extension's background
service worker. The README used to say only that Firefox was supported. - The user guide, the README and the store listing now describe the one pin,
every permission and what the embedded player loads.
Still local and private — no accounts, no tracking. Your list stays on your
machine.
Update from the Chrome Web Store.