How to Block YouTube from Pausing Videos Automatically in Chrome and Firefox

[The AchieVer]

How to Block YouTube from Pausing Videos Automatically in Chrome and Firefox 

 

Google has recently updated YouTube with a new prompt that shows up over a video whenever the user has been inactive for a specific amount of time.

The playback is automatically paused and user interaction is required to resume. “Video paused. Continue watching?” the notification reads, and users are required to click “YES” to continue playing.

While very little has been said officially on this new feature, its purpose is as simple as it could be: Google wants to reduce the number of passive viewers who typically load long videos, like music mixes, and then let them play in the background.

The same thing for playlists, which make it super-easy for YouTube users to listen to their favorite music without opening the site once after the playback starts.

In theory, this is something that’s really useful for everyone because they can listen to music without opening YouTube, but from Google’s perspective, it means these passive viewers do not watch ads that bring home the bacon.

So technically, these users enjoy the benefits of YouTube but get around ads by not opening the website.

By introducing the aforementioned prompt that requires manual input, YouTube makes sure that users continue to interact with the page. This is something that other services have been using as well, as eating up the bandwidth for no reason, such as when leaving the room for a longer period of time, it’s helping anyone.

In the case of YouTube, Google doesn’t provide users with any method of disabling this behavior, so pretty much everyone could get the notification when playing longer videos in the background or playlists.
 

 

 

But as typically happens with such changes, you can disable them even if Google doesn’t specifically let you to, and it’s all possible thanks to extensions available for the two most popular browsers in the world, namely Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

Both of them have been around for a while and are created by the same developer known as lawfx. They are called YouTube NonStop and can be downloaded using these links for Chrome and Firefox.

The extension doesn’t come with any UI, so it’s enough to simply install it and then enjoy YouTube without any interruption. One thing you should know, however, is that the extension isn’t supposed to block the YouTube message from showing up on the screen, as the developer explains in the description.

“This extension doesn't keep the confirmation box from popping up. It only counters it. Such as un-pausing the video when paused and auto-clicking the confirmation box.”

“Tired of getting that "Video paused. Continue watching?" confirmation dialog? This extension autoclicks it, so you can listen to your favorite music uninterrupted,” it adds.

Needless to say, the extension is completely free of charge, and it works with both YouTube and YouTube Music. It supports video in full screen and the mini player.

Of course, this isn’t the only extension that blocks the YouTube prompt from showing up, but YouTube NonStop is free, easy to use, and is available for both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. And because the number of Chromium-based browsers is always increasing, especially after the migration of Microsoft Edge from EdgeHTML to this engine, this extension can be used on a wide array of applications.

The extension has been around for a while and Google hasn’t blocked it just yet, so there’s a chance the search giant is just OK with it and has no intention to remove it anytime soon.

 

 

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