Navigate YouTube with customizable keyboard shortcuts for videos, search, Shorts, and live chat.
Users
2
store count
Rating
0.0 / 5
unchanged in 30 days
Ratings
0
total ratings
Store rank
#367K
#276K among extensions
Version
0.1.0
updated 11 Oct 2026
About Better YouTube Life
Less clicking. More watching.
Better YouTube Life focuses on choosing videos and moving around YouTube.
It works alongside YouTube's built-in shortcuts: use the extension to find and
open your next video, then use YouTube's familiar keys to control playback.
Your usual interface and playback controls stay in place.
- Select videos with h, j, k, and l on the home page, search results, and related-video lists.
- Open your selection with Enter. Use gg to return to the top and G to reach the last loaded video.
- Press / to focus search and gh to go home.
- Press ; to select related videos; Escape returns to playback.
- Move between Shorts with j/l and k/h; Escape returns to native playback.
- On supported live and replay pages, use gc to show/hide chat, gi to focus the available chat input, and gl to return to the live position when YouTube provides it.
- Customize all 14 extension shortcuts. Choose hints, timing, automatic selection, position restoration, and a light/dark/system popup theme.
- Choose English, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, or Traditional Chinese for the popup and shortcut hints. English is the default. This does not change YouTube's display language.
Typing and input-method composition take priority in search, comments, and chat.
YouTube's playback shortcuts stay native in playback mode. Custom key assignments
can override YouTube shortcuts; Escape always remains available to exit selection.
Privacy and position restoration
To restore your place after going Back, the extension keeps up to 20 page
addresses (which can include search terms and video IDs), selections, and scroll
positions in the current tab's YouTube-origin session storage. Settings are
stored in this browser's extension storage. Neither is sent to the developer.
Turn off “Restore position when going Back” in Settings to clear saved positions
in open YouTube tabs and stop saving them. See the linked privacy policy for
retention and browser-session restoration details.
No analytics, advertising, remote code, or paid features. All features are free;
optional developer support opens Buy Me a Coffee only when you choose it.
No extension account is required. Posting comments/chat still requires your
YouTube account where YouTube requires one.
Supported on desktop Chrome at www.youtube.com. Subscriptions, channel video
lists, and playlist pages are not supported in version 0.1.0. Live-edge and chat
actions depend on the controls available on each video; archived replay has no
message input. YouTube layouts can change, so please report issues through Contact.
Better YouTube Life is an independent extension and is not affiliated with,
endorsed by, or produced by YouTube or Google.