theysap.
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GlassTube

YouTube, reimagined for the big screen. A Chrome extension that turns youtube.com into a cinematic, Apple TV inspired experience with a Liquid Glass design, from the home screen to the player to Picture in Picture. It collects nothing.

Install Source User manual Privacy policy

YouTube, laid out like a living room

GlassTube redraws youtube.com in the image of the Apple TV app. Home becomes a full-screen Top Shelf above sideways shelves, the player fills the screen with glass capsule controls, and Picture in Picture gets a floating window of its own. Channels, playlists, search, Subscriptions, History and Shorts all come along.

It reads data, not the page. GlassTube draws from the same JSON YouTube renders from: ytInitialData, the payload of every in-app navigation, and live renderer data as feeds page in. A tolerant parser normalises old and new renderer shapes, so small YouTube changes rarely break it.

YouTube keeps working underneath. Every GlassTube page is a layer over YouTube’s own, hidden one. Subscribe presses YouTube’s button, ads play with YouTube’s controls so Skip always works, and Shorts keep YouTube’s player and gestures. Reach the end of a grid and GlassTube nudges the native page to load its next batch, rather than reimplementing YouTube’s API.

Every part is switchable, live, from the toolbar popup. Turn GlassTube off and every layer and class is removed on the spot. YouTube is handed back exactly as it was.

Every page, not just the home screen

GlassTube is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube, Google or Apple.

top shelf A full-screen hero that rotates through your top picks, with Ken Burns motion, scroll parallax and an ambient colour glow. Below it, Continue Watching with progress, Top Picks, Subscriptions, Shorts, Mixes, Live Now, Watch Later, Explore and endless More for You rows.
watch page The player fills the screen. Glass controls fade in on demand, with a thick scrubber that previews any moment as a storyboard thumbnail. Up Next, the playlist, a glass description card and tucked-away comments sit below.
picture in picture The video moves into a Document Picture-in-Picture window with tvOS-style controls, a scrubber and Back to tab. Playback never skips a beat.
browse pages Channels with banner, avatar and tab pills. Playlists, Watch Later and Liked as collections with a numbered episode list. Subscriptions, History, You, search results, hashtags and hubs.
shorts An ambient glow taken from the current Short, glass action buttons and rounded corners, around YouTube’s own player and gestures.
search Full screen, with live results as you type: videos, channels, Shorts and playlists, and recent searches kept on your computer.
remote navigation The arrow keys move focus like a Siri Remote. Focused cards lift and tilt under a specular glare.

Every option, and what it does

All of them live in the toolbar popup, and every change applies instantly to open YouTube tabs. No reload.

GlassTubeon. The master switch. Off gives you plain YouTube immediately, the toolbar icon shows an OFF badge, and every other option is dimmed.
Top Shelf Homeon. Replaces YouTube’s home grid with the Top Shelf and shelves.
Cinematic Watch Pageon. Theater mode stretched to full height, YouTube’s top bar hidden, and Up Next, comments and Shorts laid out below the video.
tvOS Player Controlson. Glass buttons and a large scrubber with thumbnail previews. Needs Cinematic Watch Page. Turn it off if you rely on YouTube’s chapter list or miniplayer button.
tvOS Browse Pageson. Channels, playlists, Subscriptions, History, You, search, hashtags and hubs.
Cinematic Shortson. The ambient glow, glass buttons and GlassTube sidebar around Shorts.
Picture in Pictureon. GlassTube’s floating player, and Alt P.
Top Shelf Backgroundcalm. A soft gradient with the thumbnail framed as a poster, which never clashes with a busy thumbnail. Artwork fills the whole top of the screen with it instead.
Auto-rotate Top Shelfon. The next featured video every 9 seconds. It pauses while you hover the hero, scroll down, search or switch tabs.
Explore Rowson. Music, Gaming and News shelves on Home. Always shown when your personal feed is empty, so Home is never blank.
Parallax Tilton. Cards tilt towards the cursor and a soft light glints across them.
Reduce Transparencyoff. Solid surfaces instead of Liquid Glass, everywhere. Easier to read, and much lighter on older computers.

Requirements

browserChrome 116 or later, for Document Picture-in-Picture. Edge, Brave and Arc generally work too
sitewww.youtube.com. Embedded players and live chat are left alone
permissionstorage, and nothing else
accountOptional. Signed in, you get your personal rows; signed out, Explore rows
best onA maximised window, or full screen
licenceMIT. Free, and the source is on GitHub

Installing

  1. Install GlassTube from the Chrome Web Store.
  2. Pin it: click the puzzle-piece icon in Chrome’s toolbar and pin GlassTube, so its popup is one click away.
  3. Open youtube.com. If it was already open, reload the tab once so GlassTube can start.
  4. Maximise the window, or go full screen with F11, or ⌃⌘F on a Mac.
  5. Sign in to YouTube for Continue Watching, Subscriptions and Watch Later.

The Chrome Web Store is the only place the packaged extension is published. GitHub Releases carry release notes and nothing to download, and the store updates GlassTube on its own. After an update, YouTube tabs that were already open keep the previous version until you reload them.

Or run it from source

$ git clone https://github.com/theysap/GlassTube.git
  1. Open chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode.
  2. Click Load unpacked and choose the src/ folder of the clone.
  3. After editing, press ↻ on the extension card and reload YouTube.

User manual

What each part does, and how to get around it. The full manual lives in the repository, and Read manual at the top of the popup opens it.

Home, the Top Shelf

  • The hero shows your top picks. Play starts the video, Channel opens its channel, and the dots at the bottom right switch between featured videos. The capsule around them fills up to show the rotation timer.
  • Shelves scroll sideways: a trackpad, Shift and the wheel, the round ‹ › arrows that appear on hover, or the arrow keys.
  • A shelf title with a ›, such as Continue Watching ›, opens the full page.
  • Keep scrolling and more rows load on their own. Middle-click or ⌘/Ctrl-click any card to open it in a new tab.

The sidebar

The floating glass pill on the left of Home, browse pages and Shorts. Hover it, or move focus into it with ←, to expand the labels: Search, Home, Subscriptions, Shorts, You, History, Watch Later, and Classic View. On the watch page a smaller pill at the top left gives you ‹ Home and Search, and fades with the controls while a video plays.

Search

  • Open it from the sidebar, the watch page pill, or with / on Home and browse pages.
  • Results appear as you type, in Top Results, Channels, Shorts and Playlists shelves.
  • Enter opens YouTube’s full results page, in the GlassTube layout. ↓ moves into the results, Esc closes.
  • Recent searches are kept on your computer only. Clear removes them.

Watching a video

Move the mouse over the video to show the controls. They hide after about three seconds while playing, and stay while paused. Left to right:

⟲10 / ⟳10Back or forward ten seconds
play / pauseClicking the video does the same
nextNext in the playlist, or YouTube’s autoplay pick
volumeClick to mute, hover for a slider
CCCaptions, shown only when the video has them
speed0.5× to 2×. The button shows the speed when it is not normal
settingsYouTube’s own menu: quality, audio track, sleep timer, chapters
PiP / full screenPicture in Picture, and full screen. Double-clicking the video also goes full screen
  • Hover the scrubber to preview any moment; click or drag to jump. Elapsed time is on the left, remaining on the right. Live streams show a red LIVE pill instead.
  • Ads use YouTube’s own controls, so Skip always works. GlassTube’s come back afterwards.
  • Scroll down for the title, channel, Subscribe, likes and share, the description card, Up Next, the playlist when you are in one, Comments, and a Shorts shelf.

Picture in Picture

  1. On a watch page, click the PiP button, or press Alt P.
  2. The video moves to a floating window you can drag and resize. The tab shows Playing in Picture in Picture, with Bring Back.
  3. In the window: ⟲10, play and ⟳10 in the centre, a scrubber along the bottom, mute at the top right and Back to tab at the top left.
  4. Close the window, or click Back to tab, and the video returns to the page without interrupting playback.

Chrome only opens Picture in Picture after a click or a key press, so it cannot open by itself when you switch tabs.

Channels, playlists and library

  • Channels: banner, avatar, subscriber count, a description that expands, a Subscribe button that presses YouTube’s own so the bell still works, and tabs for Home, Videos, Shorts, Live, Playlists and Posts.
  • Playlists, Watch Later and Liked: a collection header with Play All, then a numbered list. Edit opens YouTube’s layout to remove or reorder videos.
  • History is grouped by day. Manage History opens YouTube’s layout to search, pause or clear it.
  • Grids keep loading more as you scroll.

Classic View

Classic Home or Classic View in the sidebar hands the page back to YouTube’s layout for the rest of the tab session. A bright GlassTube View pill at the bottom right brings it back. To turn a part off everywhere, for good, use the switches in the popup instead.

Keyboard shortcuts

YouTube’s own keys keep working alongside these.

← ↑ → ↓Move focus between cards on Home, browse pages and search, like a remote
EnterOpen the focused item
/Open search, on Home and browse pages
EscClose search, menus or Picture in Picture
Alt PToggle Picture in Picture
K · SpacePlay or pause
J · LBack or forward ten seconds
F · M · C · TFull screen, mute, captions, theater mode
in PiPSpace ← → M Esc: play or pause, back, forward, mute, close

Known issues, and what to expect

GlassTube redraws YouTube from the same data YouTube uses, while YouTube keeps running underneath. That keeps it reliable, and it leaves a few rough edges. None of them touch your account or your data.

Loading and reloading

  • Channel pages can take a moment, usually one to three seconds, because GlassTube waits for YouTube to finish loading the channel. If one stays blank or shows the plain dark layout, reload the tab once. The same occasionally happens on playlists, History or Subscriptions after switching between them quickly.
  • Home’s personal rows fill in a few seconds after it opens, so shelves may appear one after another.
  • After installing or updating, reload YouTube tabs that were already open.

Behaviour you might notice

  • Theater mode stays on. The cinematic player uses it, and YouTube remembers it. Press T on any video to switch it back off.
  • YouTube’s top bar is hidden on the watch page and Shorts. For notifications, upload or the account menu, turn off Cinematic Watch Page or Cinematic Shorts.
  • The chapter list, miniplayer and autoplay toggle are still reachable through the settings button, the keyboard, or by turning off tvOS Player Controls.
  • When YouTube changes its website, a page may look off, or fall back to YouTube’s layout, until GlassTube is updated. Report it with the page type.

If it feels laggy

Glass is GPU-heavy. Older laptops, integrated graphics, 4K and 5K displays and battery-saver mode are where it shows. In order of effect:

  1. Turn on Reduce Transparency. This removes most of the cost.
  2. Turn off Parallax Tilt and Auto-rotate Top Shelf, and use the Calm background.
  3. Reload long-running YouTube tabs now and then. Hundreds of cards make scrolling heavier.
  4. Check chrome://settings/system → Use graphics acceleration when available is on.

Troubleshooting

blank or plain pageReload the tab. Check the master switch in the popup is on, and that the page is not in Classic View: look for the pill at the bottom right
nothing changesReload, then check in chrome://extensions that GlassTube is enabled and allowed on youtube.com
only Explore rowsSign in to YouTube, and make sure watch history is not paused. Without either, YouTube has no personal feed to show
no controlsMove the mouse over the video. During ads YouTube’s own controls are shown. Check tvOS Player Controls is on
PiP does nothingIt needs Chrome 116 or later, and a click. Older browsers fall back to standard video Picture in Picture
hard to readTurn on Reduce Transparency, and try the Calm background
something elseToggle GlassTube off and on in the popup, reload, then report it

Questions

blocks ads?No. It only changes how YouTube looks. Ads play, with YouTube’s own controls
changes my feed?No. It shows the feed YouTube would, and watching through it is watching on YouTube
other browsers?Built for Chrome. Other Chromium browsers generally work; Picture in Picture needs Chromium 116 or later

Reporting a problem

  1. Open a new issue, or click Report an issue at the bottom of the popup, and choose Bug report or Feature request.
  2. Say which page it happened on, the steps to see it, what you expected and what happened.
  3. Include your GlassTube version, under its name in the popup, and Chrome’s, from chrome://settings/help.
  4. Mention whether reloading the tab helped, and which popup options you have changed.
  5. Add a screenshot or a short recording if you can.

Issues are public. Blur your account, your history and anything personal in a screenshot, and never paste passwords or private links.

What it asks for

One permission, and access to the one site it restyles.

storage Your preferences, in chrome.storage.sync so they follow your Chrome profile, and recent searches, in chrome.storage.local on this computer only.
youtube.com Content scripts on https://www.youtube.com/*, to restyle its pages. No other site, and not YouTube embeds elsewhere.
Why this is all it needs
  • It collects nothing. No analytics, no telemetry, no advertising, no servers. There is nowhere for anything to be sent.
  • No remote code. Everything the extension runs is in the package the Chrome Web Store reviewed, and the validator in the repository fails the build if that ever changes.
  • No third-party requests. To build Home it may load YouTube pages you could open yourself, such as your subscriptions, history or Watch Later, with your existing session, the same way youtube.com does. That data draws the page and is neither stored nor sent anywhere.
  • The source is public and MIT licensed. Every line is in the repository, along with the privacy policy.
Your settings leave the browser only through Chrome’s own sync, and only if you have turned it on. Removing the extension from chrome://extensions removes them with it.