Google Chrome: How to play and pause a video from the toolbar

Raise your hand if this has happened to you: You have 20 tabs open in your browser and one of them appears to be playing music or a video. You’re going crazy clicking to find out what it is, and now you’re already starting to get mad. Fortunately, Google has a new desktop button that allows you to pause (and play) music and videos from the tab you are currently in without having to go through the nightmare of finding the culprit first.

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The button is very convenient for those who generally have multiple tabs open, their computer volume high, and need to quickly turn off or pause music or video. The new feature is still in its experimental phase, so it may work differently once it’s officially released. We tell you how it works.

Update the Google Chrome

Make sure you have the latest update on your desktop, Chrome 77. If you already have it, scroll down to the next section.

1. In your Chrome browser, go to the section with the three vertical dots that appear in the upper right corner.

2. Mouse over  Help and choose About Google Chrome. If it says Google Chrome is up to date, you can skip this section.

3. Click Relaunch. Make sure to save your work, because this will relaunch all your tabs in Chrome.

Now that you have the latest version of Chrome, you can move on to the next section.

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Activate the Pause / Play button

1. Open a tab in Chrome and type  chrome: // flags / in the address bar.

2. In the Search, flags search part, type Global Media Controls.

3. In the menu that appears on the right, choose Enabled.

4. Click  Relaunch Now. Make sure to save your work, as this will restart the browser.

5. And now you will see a Play button on the same toolbar. Use it to stop and play audio.

Time to put it to the test

1. Open a site like YouTube or the  Spotify Web Player in your Chrome browser and choose a song or video.

2. When you’re ready to pause it, click the little Play button that appears on your toolbar.

3. A box will appear that shows you the video that is currently playing. Click the Pause button.

4. Click the Play button to continue listening. There are also options to fastback or fast forward. Fast-forward and Rewind.

And that’s it! Now you can pause and play songs and videos from any tab without going crazy.