Google is changing the way videos and music are played in Chrome, allowing you to control playback without switching between tabs.
A new floating control panel will allow you to play, pause, stop and skip media, without the need to drop whatever is working.
Chrome Story first detected the feature in June, but now XDA Developers has managed to enable it via a flag (a control used to enable experimental features before they’re ready for release). Curious? Find out what Chrome flags are and how to use them.
Not all tools that appear as flags are implemented (for example, Google seems to have ruled out its experimental option of forcing dark mode on websites that don’t officially support it), but it’s still a good sign that it will be implemented soon.
Take advantage of…
We’ve seen Google experiment with adding multimedia controls to Chrome before, and last year added a play button to your browser’s toolbar that allows you to stop and restart music and videos without having to search for the appropriate controls on the website.
The difference here is that the controls will follow you between tabs, so you can play with your music while working on a Google sheet, for example. With work from home becoming part of the ‘new normal’ and no colleagues in the room complaining about the office playlist, we can see that it is a very popular feature.
