Focus Mode
Dim everything except the video so distractions melt away. Toggle with z or Z.
New in v2.0.0 What's new
v2.0.0 turns the speed tool into a full YouTube productivity suite — 8 major features added on top of the playback engine.
Cinema Lighting
Ambient light panels behind the video that follow its dominant color. Toggle with x or X.
Notes
Timestamped notes for every video, saved per video and jumpable with one click.
Bookmarks
Mark moments on the timeline and jump back with a click on the red marker bar.
Watch statistics
A dashboard tracking your watched time, most-used speeds and speed-change habits.
Light, Dark & OLED themes
The popup and ambient effects adapt to three themes, including true-black OLED.
Speed profiles
Save and restore named speed presets (e.g. “Tutorials”, “Podcasts”) in one click.
Picture-in-Picture
Pop the video out with p or P — or globally with Alt+Shift+P.
Features
0.25x – 8x speed
A slider and preset chips (1x, 1.5x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 8x) take you far beyond YouTube's 2x limit.
Auto Apply
Your preferred speed sticks and is applied automatically on every video and page navigation.
Keyboard shortcuts
Press [ and ] to nudge speed by 0.25x, \ to reset. Global shortcuts too.
Speed overlay
A small overlay shows the current speed whenever it changes. Toggle it off anytime.
Settings sync
Speed preferences persist and sync across devices through chrome.storage.sync. Notes, bookmarks and stats stay on this device.
Private by design
No analytics, no tracking, no data collection. Only two least-privilege permissions are used.
Install in 3 steps
Works on Windows, macOS and Linux — Chrome or Edge.
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1
Download and unzip
Click Download Now to get the extension zip from GitHub, then unzip it to a folder you won't delete (e.g.
Documents\HackYourPlayback). -
2
Open chrome://extensions
Type chrome://extensions in the address bar (or edge://extensions on Edge) and turn on Developer mode — it's the toggle in the top-right corner.
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3
Click “Load unpacked”
Click Load unpacked, select the unzipped folder, and the extension is installed. Open any YouTube video and move the slider in the popup.
Tip: pin the extension — click the puzzle-piece icon in your toolbar and
pin Hack Your YouTube Playback so the popup is one click away.
Step-by-step guide
Follow along — every step of download, install and first use.
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1 Download the extension
Click Download Now to get the extension zip from GitHub Releases.
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2 Unzip the file
Extract the zip to a permanent folder such as
Documents\HackYourPlayback. Keep the folder — Chrome reads the extension from it.
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3 Open the extensions page
Type chrome://extensions in the address bar (edge://extensions on Edge) and press Enter.
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4 Turn on Developer mode
Use the Developer mode toggle in the top-right corner of the page.
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5 Click “Load unpacked”
The Load unpacked button appears in the top-left once Developer mode is on.
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6 Select the folder
Choose the unzipped extension folder and click Select Folder. The extension is now installed.
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7 Pin the extension
Click the puzzle-piece icon in the toolbar and pin Hack Your YouTube Playback so the popup is always one click away.
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8 Open the popup
Play any YouTube video, then click the extension icon to open the popup.
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9 Adjust the speed
Drag the slider, tap a preset chip (1x–8x), or press [ / ]. Your speed is saved automatically.
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10 Enjoy your speed
Your preferred speed applies automatically to every video and navigation, with the overlay showing the current speed.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| ] | Speed up by 0.25x |
| [ | Slow down by 0.25x |
| \ | Reset to 1x |
| p / P | Toggle Picture-in-Picture |
| z / Z | Toggle Focus Mode |
| x / X | Toggle Cinema Lighting |
| Alt+Shift+↑ | Speed up (works anywhere in Chrome) |
| Alt+Shift+↓ | Slow down (works anywhere in Chrome) |
| Alt+Shift+R | Reset to 1x (works anywhere in Chrome) |
| Alt+Shift+P | Toggle Picture-in-Picture (works anywhere in Chrome) |
Privacy
No analytics, no tracking, no data collection — ever. The extension stores your speed
settings in your own chrome.storage.sync, keeps notes, bookmarks and stats
in local storage on this device, and asks for the minimum permissions required to work
(storage and activeTab).