Focus Mode
فارسی

Focus Mode for YouTube

Watch the video you came for. The rest stays tucked away.

A free Chrome extension · open source · no tracking · not affiliated with YouTube

⬇️ Download for Chrome View on GitHub
Before: a YouTube video page with related videos, end screen suggestions, description and comments. After: just the video, centered, with its title. Before: a YouTube video page with related videos, end screen suggestions, description and comments. After: just the video, centered, with its title.

🚀 Install in a minute

1Unzip the download

You'll get one folder.

2Turn on Developer mode

Open chrome://extensions; the switch is at the top right.

3Load unpacked

Choose the unzipped folder. That's it.

📌 Pin it from the puzzle-piece icon in Chrome's toolbar.

🙈 What it tucks away

Each part has its own switch, and you can bring any of them back at any time.

On the video page

🎞️ Related videos

The "Up next" column beside the player. The video moves to the center; playlists, live chat and transcripts stay.

A video page without the column of suggested videos. The player sits in the center. A video page without the column of suggested videos. The player sits in the center.

🎬 End screen

The cards and suggestion grid that appear as a video ends. Autoplay's countdown stays visible.

The last moments of a video, with no suggestion cards laid over the picture. The last moments of a video, with no suggestion cards laid over the picture.

💬 Comments

The comments under the video.

The area under a video, with the comments tucked away. The area under a video, with the comments tucked away.

📝 Description

The box under the title with views, date and description.

A video title with nothing below it: no views, date or description box. A video title with nothing below it: no views, date or description box.

On Home

📱 Shorts

Rows of Shorts, single Shorts in search and under videos, and the Shorts menu entry.

YouTube's Home page with regular videos only. The row of tall Shorts and the Shorts menu entry are gone. YouTube's Home page with regular videos only. The row of tall Shorts and the Shorts menu entry are gone.

🧭 Explore

The Explore section of the left menu, and Home's "Explore more topics" row.

YouTube's Home page with a shorter left menu and no row of topics to explore. YouTube's Home page with a shorter left menu and no row of topics to explore.

🎛️ Controls

⏸️ Pause when you want YouTube as usual

Master has three settings: On, Pause and Off. Pause for 15 minutes, 1 hour or until tomorrow morning, and it comes back by itself.

🫧 A quiet corner badge

A small badge in the bottom-left corner of YouTube shows what's tucked away. It stays dim until you hover it and shows itself once a day. Close it and you get a few seconds to undo, or switch it off in the popup.

The corner badge on YouTube: a dim round icon at rest, and open with what's tucked away and a Pause 15 min button. The corner badge on YouTube: a dim round icon at rest, and open with what's tucked away and a Pause 15 min button.
🗺️ A popup with a map

The Focus tab shows a small map of the video page and of Home. Tap a tile, or the area itself, to tuck it away or bring it back. Settings and About are one tab away.

The extension's popup in light mode: the Focus tab with maps of the video page and Home, and a tile for each part of YouTube. The extension's popup in dark mode: the Focus tab with maps of the video page and Home, and a tile for each part of YouTube.

🔒 Safe by design

It runs only on youtube.com, its only permission is saving its own settings, and it makes no network requests. Nothing is tracked or collected.

How much access does an extension need?

More access isn't bad by itself: a tool that works on every website has to ask for every website. It just means more trust. Here's where common kinds of extensions sit.

Changes how one website looks Focus Mode Saving its settings, plus that one site
Organises your tabs, history or bookmarks Tabs, history or bookmarks
Works on any website you visit Every website (ad blockers, translators, dark-mode tools)
Watches or changes network traffic Web requests on the sites it covers
Works together with an app on your computer Native messaging, often with broad site access
How to verify it yourself → Online safety checker →

🙋 Something broken? Got an idea?

YouTube changes its page often, so reports keep this working.

🐞 Report a problem 💡 Suggest a feature

📚 More

🔄 Updating to a new version

Download the new zip, unzip it over your old folder, and click Reload on the extension's card in chrome://extensions. Your settings stay, even if you move or rename the folder.

🌐 Other browsers

Works in Chrome 107+ and other Chromium browsers: Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi. Their extensions page has the same Developer mode and Load unpacked options.

⚙️ How it works

The hiding rules are plain CSS, applied before YouTube draws the page, so nothing flashes on screen first. A tiny script switches rules off for the parts you've chosen to keep. Changes apply to every open YouTube tab at once, and with Chrome sync on, your choices follow you to your other computers.

extension/      The extension: what's in the download
  hide.css      Rules that tuck each part away
  content.js    Switches rules off for parts you keep
  badge.js      The quiet corner badge
  settings.js   Loads and saves settings
  popup.*       The popup
tools/
  safety-check.html   The safety checker
🤝 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For anything bigger than a small fix, please open an issue first. New releases are built automatically when a version tag is pushed.