hyde

Even though this might get regarded as just “another first world problem,” here’s a question for you: how many times did the YouTube video player controls annoy you? If the answer is one too many times, then you’ll like this tiny Chrome extension called hyde.

As you may have already guessed, it’s a Chrome extension that allows you to hide or show the YouTube video player controls at your will. In doing so, it allows you to enjoy a better and unspoiled watching experience on YouTube (as the controls usually end up taking a bit of screen space and actually block your view), or simply take a clear screenshot of a specific video at a certain time.

Whatever your need to hide them the YouTube video player controls may be, it’s easily achievably by simply pressing the “CTRL+M” keyboard shortcut. There’s really not much to say about the extension other than that because it doesn’t even have a proper GUI (and it really doesn’t need it, to be fair).

Just press the aforementioned keyboard shortcut to hide YouTube video player controls, and press it once more to make them appear once again. It can be deployed on your browser just as easily as other extensions from the Chrome Web Store. Once installed, the extension will make its presence known via a typical toolbar icon.

To conclude, hyde is a simple yet effective extension that allows you to get rid of the YouTube video player controls when pausing a video. Simply install this Chrome extension, press CTRL+M, take your desired screenshot at a specific time, and press CTRL+M once more to re-enable them.