A powerful Chrome extension that revolutionizes your YouTube viewing experience by adding instant quality, speed, and media controls directly to every video page. Skip the native settings menu and control your viewing with one click or custom keyboard shortcuts!
Why YouTube Quick Controls? YouTube's default controls are buried in menus. This extension puts everything you need right above the video title — instantly accessible with a single click.
- One-click access to all available qualities (Auto, 144p → 8K+)
- 1080p Premium detection — shown with a distinct gold pill when available
- Smart quality filling — when 1080p or higher is detected, the extension automatically displays all standard lower resolutions (720p, 480p, etc.) for convenience
- Smart quality detection — polls YouTube's API until the full quality list is loaded
- Zero-Flash rendering — toggling settings in the popup no longer "reloads" or flashes the quality list; it updates the UI instantly using cached data
- Collapsible row — click the Quality ◀ label to hide/show the quality buttons, keeping the UI clean
- 12 speed presets: 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x, Normal, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, 2x, 2.5x, 3x, 3.5x, 4x
- Goes beyond YouTube's 2x default limit
- Collapsible row — click the Speed ◀ label to hide/show speed buttons
- Both rows collapse horizontally to the left, keeping the rightmost label always visible
A dedicated row of utility tools below the quality buttons:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| 🔊 Volume | Hover to reveal a pixel-perfect range slider. Bi-directional sync: updates instantly even if you change volume via YouTube's slider or keyboard shortcuts. Click the pill to toggle mute/unmute (restores previous volume). Muted state shows a distinct red dashed border. |
| 📝 CC | Toggle closed captions on/off |
| 📷 Frame | Capture and download the current video frame as a PNG |
| 🔁 Loop | Toggle video looping (button lights up red when active) |
| 🔗 Time Link | Copy a timestamped URL of the video at the current playback position |
| 🔀 Copy URL | Copy the clean video URL with no timestamp or extra parameters |
<> Embed |
Copy the HTML <iframe> embed code |
| 🎵 Audio Track | Switch between available audio tracks (only visible when multiple tracks exist) |
- Quality shortcuts:
Alt + 0(Auto),Alt + 1–9(144p → 8K) - Speed shortcuts:
Shift + `` / 1–9 / 0 / -(0.25x → 4x) - Custom mapping: Change any shortcut to your preference via the popup
- Conflict-free: Only active on YouTube, won't interfere with other sites
- Compact pill-style buttons matching YouTube's native chip design language
- Collapsible sections — Quality and Speed rows slide away horizontally with smooth animations
- Inline SVG icons (Lucide-style) for all tool buttons — perfectly aligned with text
- Hover effects: subtle lift (
translateY), glow shadow, and border accent on all controls - 1080p Premium shown with a gold gradient pill, distinct from regular 1080p
- Volume widget: hover-reveal slider panel appears to the left of the pill with a 350ms grace period so you can reach it comfortably
- Dark theme ready — fully respects YouTube's dark mode using native CSS variables
- Toggle sections independently: Quality, Speed, and Media Tools can each be enabled/disabled from the popup
- Settings sync: Preferences saved with
chrome.storage.syncacross sessions and devices - Live updates: Setting changes apply immediately without page refresh
- Visit the Chrome Web Store page
- Click "Add to Chrome"
- Confirm by clicking "Add Extension"
- Visit any YouTube video to see the controls!
git clone https://github.com/harsh98trivedi/YouTube-Quick-Controls.gitOr download the ZIP and extract it, then:
- Open Chrome →
chrome://extensions/ - Enable "Developer mode" (top right)
- Click "Load unpacked" → select the extension folder
- Visit any YouTube video — controls appear above the title!
- Navigate to any YouTube video (
youtube.com/watch?v=...) - Look for the control rows above the video title
- Quality row (top): Click any quality pill to switch resolution instantly
- Media Tools row (middle): Use volume, CC, screenshot, loop, and copy tools
- Speed row (bottom): Click any speed pill to change playback rate
- Collapse rows: Click the Quality ◀ or Speed ◀ label on the right to hide/show that row
- Hover over the volume pill → a smooth slider appears to the left
- Drag to set any volume level (snaps every 5%)
- Perfect Sync: The extension listens for volume changes from the YouTube player itself. If you use YouTube's native slider or the
up/downarrow keys, the extension's UI updates in real-time. - Click the pill to toggle mute — clicking again restores the previous volume level
- When muted: pill shows a red dashed border and italic "Muted" label
| Shortcut | Quality | Description |
|---|---|---|
Alt + 0 |
Auto | YouTube's automatic selection |
Alt + 1 |
144p | Lowest quality |
Alt + 2 |
240p | Low quality |
Alt + 3 |
360p | Standard quality |
Alt + 4 |
480p | Enhanced quality |
Alt + 5 |
720p | HD quality |
Alt + 6 |
1080p | Full HD |
Alt + 7 |
1440p | 2K quality |
Alt + 8 |
2160p | 4K quality |
Alt + 9 |
4320p | 8K quality |
| Shortcut | Speed | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| `Shift + `` | 0.25x | Slow motion analysis |
Shift + 1 |
0.5x | Detailed learning |
Shift + 2 |
0.75x | Careful listening |
Shift + 3 |
1x | Normal speed |
Shift + 4 |
1.25x | Slightly faster |
Shift + 5 |
1.5x | Efficient learning |
Shift + 6 |
1.75x | Quick consumption |
Shift + 7 |
2x | Rapid playback |
Shift + 8 |
2.5x | Power browsing |
Shift + 9 |
3x | Ultra-fast scanning |
Shift + 0 |
3.5x | Extreme speed |
Shift + - |
4x | Maximum speed |
- Click the extension icon in Chrome's toolbar
- Toggle Quality Controls, Speed Controls, or Media Tools with switches
- Customize keyboard shortcuts by clicking any shortcut and pressing your desired key combo
- Reset to defaults or clear all shortcuts at any time
- Chrome: Version 88+ (Manifest V3)
- Chromium-based: Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi
| Permission | Usage | Why Needed |
|---|---|---|
storage |
Save user preferences | Remember settings across sessions |
activeTab |
Access YouTube watch pages | Inject controls above video title |
clipboardWrite |
Copy URL / Time Link / Embed code | Write to clipboard on button click |
- Lightweight: Minimal DOM footprint, no heavy frameworks
- Fast startup: Controls render immediately on page load
- Efficient polling: Quality detection stops as soon as the full list is available
- Multiple fallbacks: DOM inspection used if YouTube API isn't ready
- YouTube Player API (
getAvailableQualityLevels): primary method - Polling loop (200ms interval): waits until the complete quality list is available before stopping
- DOM fallback: inspects the settings menu if API is unavailable
- Sorted output: Auto → 144p → … → 1080p → 1080p Premium → 1440p → 4K → 8K
Found a bug? Please create a detailed issue:
- Steps to reproduce
- Expected vs actual behaviour
- Browser version and OS
- Screenshots if applicable
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature) - Test on multiple YouTube videos and quality levels
- Commit with clear messages (
git commit -m 'Add amazing feature') - Open a Pull Request with a detailed description
This extension operates entirely locally in your browser:
- ❌ No personal data collected
- ❌ No browsing or watch history tracked
- ❌ No external servers or analytics
- ✅ Settings stored locally via
chrome.storage.sync - ✅ Clipboard access only used on explicit button click
See PRIVACY-POLICY.md for full details.
- 🔊 Bi-directional Volume Sync — extension UI now stays perfectly in sync even if you change volume via YouTube's native controls or keyboard shortcuts
- 📽️ Smart Resolution Filling — detected HD qualities (1080p+) now automatically populate the full set of standard lower resolutions (720p, 480p, etc.)
- 🚀 Zero-Flash UI — optimized the settings-change logic to prevent the quality list from "reloading" or flashing when toggling features
- 📏 Refined Volume Slider — pixel-perfect progress fill mapping and improved tick alignment for a more premium look
- 🛠️ Logic Stability — improved handling for edge cases in quality detection and player-state synchronization
- 🎛️ Media Tools row — Volume slider, CC, Screenshot, Loop, Copy URL, Time Link, Embed, Audio Track
- 🔊 Premium Volume Widget — hover-reveal slider, mute toggle with restore, distinct muted styling
- 📐 Collapsible Quality & Speed rows — horizontal slide animation, label stays visible on the right
- 🎨 Inline SVG icons — Lucide-style icons replace emojis for pixel-perfect alignment
- 🏆 1080p Premium button — distinct gold gradient pill
- ✅ Reliable quality detection — polling waits for full quality list before stopping
- ⚙️ Media Tools toggle added to extension popup
- ✨ Initial release with quality and speed controls
- ⌨️ Customizable keyboard shortcuts
- 🎨 Modern popup interface
Made with ❤️ by Harsh Trivedi for YouTube Power Users
Enhance your YouTube experience with lightning-fast video controls
⭐ Star this repo if you found it helpful!
