Cmd/Ctrl-click text inside any playing video to make it selectable and copyable, just like text on a webpage.
Users
5
−1 in 30 days
Rating
0.0 / 5
unchanged in 30 days
Ratings
0
0 in 30 days
Store rank
#256K
#213K among extensions
Version
0.1.0
updated 10 Jun 2026
Users
monthly, 5 months
Latest, 15 Oct 2026:5 usersMove the mouse over the chart for any month
Ratings count
monthly, 5 months
Latest, 15 Oct 2026:0 ratingsMove the mouse over the chart for any month
The Chrome Web Store rounds user counts down to the leading digit, so the user line moves in steps. The ratings count is exact and is the better signal of real adoption.
About Video Text Selector
You've spotted something worth keeping — a quote in a talk, a code snippet in a screencast, an ingredient on a recipe card, a sign in a travel vlog, a bullet on a slide — and you reach for the keyboard only to remember it's pixels, not text. This extension turns those pixels into selectable text without pausing, screenshotting, or hunting for a transcript.
How it works:
Hold cmd (Mac) or ctrl (Win/Linux) and click on the text. A small frozen snapshot lifts off the video with the text now selectable underneath. Drag across what you want, hit cmd-c (or ctrl-c), and it's on your clipboard. The video never pauses.
What you can select:
- Single words and phrases
- Full sentences across wrapped lines — they flow back into one paragraph on copy
- Multi-line paragraphs with proper reading order
- Bulleted lists, with each item kept on its own line
- Headings and body text together, structure preserved
What it works on:
Most non-DRM HTML5 video on the open web — YouTube, lecture recordings, embedded video essays, slide-based talks, conference recordings, tutorials, and anywhere video plays in a standard <video> element.
What it doesn't work on:
DRM-protected content (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, etc.). Protected video paths return blank frames to browser extensions by design — this is a platform-level limitation with no workaround.
Privacy:
Everything runs locally in your browser. The OCR engine is bundled into the extension. No frames or text are ever sent to a server, no data is collected, no account is needed, and no network requests are made.
Open source: https://github.com/jobrienski/video-text-selector