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Show HN: A Chrome extension to give you back control over short-form videos

(chromewebstore.google.com)
128 points darajava | 5 comments | 01 Apr 25 11:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.244s | source

Hi HN! I built this little extension to prevent, in my opinion, the most offensive anti-pattern used by tech companies. That is removing the seek bar in short-form videos.

The "seek bar" is the bar at the bottom of a video that progresses as you play the video, and that you can click on or drag to skip around. Why companies ever thought it was a good idea to get rid of this I don't know, but I find it infuriating, so I decided to add it back for myself and thought others might like it too.

ReelControl adds a progress bar and seeking capabilities to videos on Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook Reels.

I do sometimes enjoy watching short-form content and I've found that with this extension enabled I can be more mindful about it and get sucked in way less. I'm also on my phone less because I tend to favor the web versions of these platforms now.

Open source--PRs and issues welcome! https://github.com/darajava/seek-anywhere/

1. omoikane ◴[02 Apr 25 18:52 UTC] No.43560112[source]▶
For youtube shorts, replacing the "shorts" in URL with "watch" will give you the usual interface, for example:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GqkmtcirwYA -> https://www.youtube.com/watch/GqkmtcirwYA

But actually I see that seek bar is already available in youtube shorts. Maybe it's a recent change?

replies(2): >>43560141 #>>43562211 #
2. darajava ◴[02 Apr 25 18:54 UTC] No.43560141[source]▶
YouTube shorts does have its own progress bar, but it's proprietary and kept out of view and so it doesn't allow the user to tell the length of the video at a glance.
3. Sohcahtoa82 ◴[02 Apr 25 22:04 UTC] No.43562211[source]▶
I've noticed the seek bar is available in MOST but not ALL shorts. I always thought it might be an option by the video owner.
replies(2): >>43562559 #>>43563399 #
4. darajava ◴[02 Apr 25 22:37 UTC] No.43562559[source]▶
I'd say it's more likely youtube A/B testing to see if they can increase engagement with that bar disabled.
5. cma ◴[03 Apr 25 00:23 UTC] No.43563399[source]▶
Tiktok used to do it based on length, is it something like that? I've noticed having it on desktop more often than mobile on YouTube shorts, maybe never on mobile browsers.