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Description
Save bandwidth on YouTube: block video stream, hide thumbnails, block avatar images, and more. 🎧 YouTube Audio Only — Chrome Extension v2 Save bandwidth on YouTube with a suite of tools: block the video stream, hide thumbnails, suppress avatar images, and more — all independently toggleable. How It Saves Bandwidth YouTube uses DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming) — audio and video are streamed as completely separate network requests. Why network-level blocking? Simply hiding images with CSS (display:none or visibility:hidden) does NOT prevent them from downloading — the browser fetches them anyway. This extension uses Chrome's declarativeNetRequest API to block the HTTP request entirely so the bytes never reach your device. The CSS hiding is used alongside the network block as a visual layer (for already-cached images and to prevent layout shifts). Features (v2) 1. 🎧 Audio Only Mode Blocks YouTube's video-segment requests (matching mime=video in DASH URLs on googlevideo.com). Only the audio stream (~128 kbps) is downloaded. The video frame goes black while audio plays normally. 2. 🖼️ Hide Thumbnails Network block: declarativeNetRequest rule blocks i.ytimg.com image requests CSS hide: ytd-thumbnail, ytd-rich-grid-media, hover-preview canvas Savings: 20–150 KB per thumbnail × 40–60 per page = 1–8 MB per page 3. 👤 Hide Avatars Network block: declarativeNetRequest rule blocks yt3.ggpht.com image requests CSS hide: ytd-comment-renderer #author-thumbnail, sidebar channel icons, etc. Savings: 5–30 KB per avatar × 50+ per comments page = ~1.5 MB per page 4. 🏞️ Hide Other Images CSS-only hide for: channel banners, end-screen overlays, merch shelf, promoted ad thumbnails Savings: ~500 KB per page 5. 🎮 Quick-Access Player Buttons (in YouTube's player controls) Two extra buttons appear in the YouTube video player (bottom-right control bar): Video On/Off 📹 camera badge - Toggle Audio Only mode — video camera icon; glows cyan with a slash when video is hidden Hide Thumbnails 🖼 image - Toggle thumbnail hiding across the whole page 6. ⚡ YouTube Shorts Floating Popup Widget & Auto-Exclusion Auto-Exclude Shorts toggle: Keep Shorts in full video mode by default even if main audio-only mode is active. Dedicated Shorts Floating Widget: A compact, responsive floating popup widget specifically built for YouTube Shorts. Close Button (✕): Top-right button that minimizes the widget into a sleek floating 🎧 icon. Audio Only On/Off Switch: Toggle between audio-only and full video directly from the Shorts screen. Live Savings: Real-time bandwidth counters for the active Short and all-time saved. Mobile-Friendly: Responsive layout with touch tap targets for small screens and mobile views. 7. 📌 Optional On-Screen Savings Widget (Standard Videos) Floating live counter showing data saved for current video & all-time on standard YouTube videos. Features a close button (✕) to dismiss it instantly. Off by default so it never clutters your screen; toggle it back on anytime from the extension popup. Popup (all features) Click the 🎧 icon → toggle each feature independently. Changes apply instantly to the active tab (no reload needed for image/CSS features). Audio-only requires a reload or seek to take effect. Player Buttons Open any YouTube video — three extra buttons appear in the bottom-right corner of the player. Technical Details Manifest V3 — modern Chrome extension standard declarativeNetRequest rules (dynamic rules, restored on startup): Rule 1: Block .*googlevideo\.com.*mime=video.* → blocks video DASH Rule 2: Block ||i.ytimg.com/* (image type) → blocks thumbnails Rule 3: Block ||yt3.ggpht.com/* (image type) → blocks avatars CSS injection via <style> tags in content.js for layout-safe hiding State persistence via chrome.storage.local — survives browser restarts No data collected — everything runs 100% locally in your browser