YouTube Filler

YouTube Filler is a lightweight Chrome and Brave extension that adds a native-looking control to the YouTube player. It lets the video fill the browser tab viewport with a centered cover crop while keeping browser tabs, the address bar and window controls visible.

The extension only runs on normal YouTube watch pages at youtube.com/watch and www.youtube.com/watch. It does not activate on Shorts, search, the YouTube home page or embedded players.

Features

• Adds a YouTube-style button next to the fullscreen control.
• Fills the current browser tab without entering real browser fullscreen.
• Uses a centered object-fit: cover crop to reduce black bars.
• Keeps YouTube playback controls available.
• Hides distracting page panels while fill mode is active.
• Works with YouTube single-page navigation between videos.
• Includes a configurable in-page shortcut.
• Supports English (US) by default and Spanish (Spain) inside the extension UI for es-* browser locales.

Shortcuts

• In-page shortcut: º by default, intended for Spanish keyboards where the key is to the left of 1. If you use another keyboard layout, record a different YouTube-only shortcut from the extension popup.
• Native browser command: Alt+Shift+V by default.
• Exit shortcut: Escape while YouTube Filler is active and the browser is not in real fullscreen.

The popup recorder changes only the in-page shortcut, which works when the YouTube tab has focus. To use a shortcut from other apps, configure the native browser command as Global in chrome://extensions/shortcuts or brave://extensions/shortcuts.

Install Locally

1. Download or clone this repository.
2. Open chrome://extensions or brave://extensions.
3. Enable Developer mode.
4. Click Load unpacked.
5. Select the project folder.
6. Open a normal YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?... or https://youtube.com/watch?....

After changing files, reload the extension from chrome://extensions or brave://extensions.

Build a Store Package

This extension has no build step and no external dependencies. GitHub contains the source only; compiled ZIP packages are generated locally for store submission and are not committed.

A PowerShell helper is included:

./scripts/package.ps1

The package will be created in dist/.

Permissions

• storage: saves the custom shortcut preference.
• activeTab: lets the native browser command send the toggle message to the active YouTube tab.
• https://www.youtube.com/* and https://youtube.com/*: inject the button and styles on YouTube pages, with a runtime guard so the feature only activates on normal /watch pages.

Privacy

YouTube Filler does not collect analytics, does not track browsing history, does not sell data and does not send video information to any external server. Settings are stored with Chrome's extension storage so your shortcut preference can sync through the browser if sync is enabled.

See PRIVACY.md for the full privacy policy.

Support

Issues and feature requests are handled through GitHub Issues. The extension popup also includes an optional support link: Buy me a coffee.

Contact: hello@enriqueite.com

Author

Enrique Serrano Aparicio

License

YouTube Filler is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 only. See LICENSE for the standard GPL terms and NOTICE for the project copyright notice.

Copyright (C) 2026 Enrique Serrano Aparicio. This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. You are welcome to redistribute it under the conditions of the GNU GPL v3.0.