Audio Only Mode for YouTube™

Hide video & thumbnails, keep the audio. Smart music detection, data saving, distraction-free YouTube & YouTube Music.

Listen to YouTube like a music player. Audio Only Mode hides the video and thumbnails while the audio keeps playing — perfect for music, podcasts and background listening. 🎵 SMART MUSIC DETECTION — the feature no other extension has Audio Only Mode automatically detects music content and hides the video only on music videos. Tutorials, vlogs and other content play normally. No setup needed — it just works. How it detects music (no API keys, fully local): - Reads the video category (Music) - Recognizes auto-generated "— Topic" channels - Scans titles for "Official Music Video", "Audio", "Lyrics", "feat." and similar patterns You can also set it to Always (hide every video) or Off (manual control). 🎛️ COMPLETE FEATURE SET YouTube: - Hide the video — choose Smart (auto-detect), Always, or Off - Lower quality when hidden — drops to 144p, saving bandwidth, CPU and battery - Hide and block thumbnails — not just hidden but blocked at the network level, so they never download - Hide and block channel avatars - Skip ads automatically - Dismiss the "Video paused. Continue watching?" popup - Quick access buttons — a ♪ button inside the player to toggle video, and a thumbnail toggle in the top bar YouTube Music: - Audio only mode — hides the video, keeps the album art, forces lowest quality - Optional hard video stream blocking for maximum data saving Embedded Players: - Optionally hide video in YouTube embeds on any website 🔧 CHANNEL RULES — set it once, forget it - "Always audio only" for your music channels (T-Series, Vevo, etc.) - "Never audio only" for channels where you always want video - Set rules with one click from the popup while watching - Add rules manually by channel name ⌨️ KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS - Ctrl+M — enable/disable for this tab only - Alt+M — hide/show the video - Alt+T — hide/show thumbnails - Customize shortcuts at chrome://extensions/shortcuts 📊 HOW IT SAVES YOUR DATA AND BATTERY When the video is hidden, the extension drops playback quality to 144p (the lowest). Combined with thumbnail and avatar blocking at the network level, this significantly reduces bandwidth usage, CPU load and battery drain — especially useful on laptops and mobile (via Kiwi or Firefox). 🔒 100% PRIVATE — ZERO DATA COLLECTION - No API keys, no external servers, no analytics, no tracking - All detection runs locally inside your browser - Your settings are stored locally in your browser profile - Open source: https://github.com/AudiOnlyMode/audio-only-mode-for-youtube The extension does not collect any kind of data. Your options are stored locally in your browser using chrome.storage.sync. ✅ WORKS ON - Google Chrome (v121+) - Microsoft Edge - Brave - Opera - Kiwi Browser (Android) - Any Chromium-based browser supporting Manifest V3 Also available for Firefox. 💡 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: How is this different from other YouTube audio extensions? A: Smart Music Detection. Other extensions hide the video on every page or need manual toggling. Audio Only Mode auto-detects music and hides the video only when appropriate — non-music content plays normally. Q: Does it use any YouTube API? A: No. All detection happens locally by reading page content. No API keys, no quotas, no external requests. Q: Does blocking thumbnails really save data? A: Yes. YouTube thumbnails are loaded for every video in your feed, recommendations, and search results. Blocking them at the network level prevents hundreds of image downloads per page. Q: Will it break YouTube? A: No. The extension only hides visual elements and adjusts quality. All YouTube functionality remains intact. Audio, comments, descriptions — everything works normally. Q: Can I use it on YouTube Music? A: Yes. On YouTube Music, the video is hidden and the album art is kept visible while audio plays at the lowest quality setting. — Audio Only Mode for YouTube™ is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube or Google LLC. YouTube™ is a trademark of Google LLC. Date of release: 16/07/2026