Ambient light around YouTube videos, plus playback options and a cleaner YouTube.
Users
94
store count
Rating
5.0 / 5
unchanged in 30 days
Ratings
1
total ratings
Store rank
#86K
#71K among extensions
Version
5.0.0
updated 14 Oct 2026
About Lumen: Ambient Light & Enhancements for YouTube
Lumen adds an ambient light around YouTube videos, starts every video in the quality and speed you choose and can hide parts of YouTube you don't need.
Ambient Light
The page around the player takes on the colors at the edges of the video, like a TV with backlighting. The light follows the picture smoothly and changes at once at scene cuts.
• Works in the normal and theater view, with vertical videos and live streams
• Dark scenes stay black, which suits OLED screens
• The search bar and the playlist beside the video let the light shine through
• The page below the video gets a little darker, so comments stay easy to read
• Brightness, color, reach, softness and smoothing can be adjusted
• Alt+A turns the light on or off
Picture
• Dim the video, for example at night. The light dims along with it
• Save the current frame as an image in full resolution with a shortcut (Alt+S, switch it on in the menu)
Playback
• Every video starts in the resolution you choose, from 144p to 4320p, or always in the highest available
• Every video starts at the speed you choose, from 0.5× to 2×. Ads and live streams keep their normal speed
• Prefer 60 fps or limit to 30 fps
• Uses the enhanced bitrate of YouTube Premium if your account has it
• Picking a different quality or speed in YouTube still works for that video
• Can avoid AV1 or VP9 on devices without hardware decoding for them
• Can also apply to YouTube videos embedded on other websites
Clean-Up
• Shorts can stay as they are, open as normal videos with light, quality and speed, or be turned off entirely
• Hide the recommendations beside the video, the comments or the home feed
• Hide end screen cards, the suggestions at the end of a video and info cards
Good to Know
• All settings are in one small menu, and hovering a setting shows a short explanation
• Shortcuts can be changed or switched off in the menu
• Built to stay light: the video player loads first and scrolling stays smooth
• The light needs graphics acceleration in Chrome and YouTube's dark theme. The menu shows when something is missing.
• If a YouTube update breaks a feature, the menu says so. The other features keep working.
Privacy
Lumen only runs on YouTube, collects no data and makes no network requests. Settings are stored in Chrome and synced to your other devices if Chrome sync is on.
Lumen is an independent project and is not affiliated with YouTube or Google.