Version 2.6.0

New:
- Recorded source for live streams: Twitch live streams can play from a recorded source that may avoid ads on some channels. A new "Use recorded source" toggle under Settings controls it, on by default. The recorded source runs behind the live broadcast, so the player tag reads DELAYED and chat runs ahead of the picture. Turn it off to watch the channel's live stream instead.

Changed:
- The live source is chosen from your setting when the stream opens, instead of being resolved automatically. The player only switches mid-stream if your choice turns out to be unplayable, and then falls back to the normal live stream.
- Live playback holds a steadier buffer. Latency and buffering targets scale with the stream's own segment length, and the forward buffer is deeper so one slow segment no longer drains it.
- The live tag reads DELAYED in amber while a stream plays from the recorded source, and LIVE in red otherwise. Hover it for a short explanation. The duplicate LIVE pill by the stream title is gone.

Removed:
- Live ad filtering. Twitch inserts live ads into the stream itself and the filter could not reliably remove them. Streams on the normal live source now show ads as Twitch delivers them; the recorded source, on by default, may avoid ads on some channels.

Fixed:
- Recordings are found on far more channels. The extension checked only a fraction of Twitch's content servers, so many channels reported no recorded source, and turned up no unpublished streams, even when a recording was there.
- A channel recording to a server this version does not know about is now recovered instead of reported as having none. The extension works it out from the channel's own past broadcasts and remembers it, in the background, without delaying playback.
- Opening a live stream from a channel page starts playing instead of sitting paused, and reopening the extension picks a live stream back up at the live edge.
- Switching channels and reopening the extension now loads the new channel instead of the previous one.
- Pressing play on a paused live stream jumps to the live edge. A deliberate rewind still keeps your position.
- The "Jump to live" button now works in audio-only mode.
- Live playback no longer speeds up to 1.1x to chase the stream, which shifted audio pitch and made motion look uneven.
- Playback from the recorded source no longer freezes for a moment every few seconds.
- Large live segments no longer time out on slower connections, and looking up a live source can no longer hang.
- Live streams no longer get stuck on a black screen at startup.

Notes:
- Where no recorded source can be found, or it cannot be played, the normal live stream plays instead.

Version 2.5.2

Fixed:
- Live-stream ad filtering now stays active after switching between audio-only and video; previously the switch disabled it until the stream was reloaded.

Improved:
- VOD chat replay no longer keeps the entire stream's chat in memory during long sessions and renders more efficiently.
- Resuming a large or partially-downloaded VOD no longer loads every saved segment into memory at once, avoiding memory spikes that could crash the download.
- Lower memory and CPU use across downloads, live playback, and the extension background.

Version 2.5.1 - 2026-05-20

NEW
- Follow button on the search-result channel row - click to add a streamer to your Discover feed or remove them, without opening the grid card.
- Live indicator on Followed Channels cards: red avatar ring, pulsing dot, LIVE badge, and current game. Live channels sort to the top.

CHANGED
- Renamed the "All" platform option to "Discover".
- Live and VOD durations now use the same format (e.g. 4h 28m 15s); the "Live for" prefix is gone since the LIVE badge already signals it.
- Date range filters show "Start Date" / "End Date" hints instead of mm/dd/yyyy.
- Tab styling is more subtle - a quiet highlight instead of a full red fill.
- Less red across the modal so the LIVE indicator stands out; game tags and platform dots now use neutral colors.
- Searching from Discover now defaults to Twitch instead of erroring; switch the dropdown to Kick for a Kick search.
- Live Now cards redesigned to match the polished search-results style - bigger thumbnails, hover play indicator, viewer/duration pills, and a star marker on favorites.
- Starred channels now sort to the top of both the Live Now row and the Followed Channels grid within their current status.

FIXED
- Live Twitch streams now play from non-Twitch pages (e.g. google.com via the toolbar); previously the player stayed black.
- Followed Channels avatars show a letter placeholder when the image is missing or fails to load, instead of an empty circle.
- Opening the extension on a non-video site (e.g. google.com) now lands on Discover instead of an empty "Other" URL extractor.
- The toolbar icon now opens the modal on the first click on non-Twitch/Kick sites (previously it could take up to three clicks).
- Newly followed channels pick up their live status immediately instead of waiting for the next poll.
- Starring a channel from search now saves the follower count, so the card shows the real number instead of "0 followers".
- The Discover view no longer shows a stray scrollbar from the empty state.
- The empty Following view now reads "No followed channels yet" and is properly centered.
- The Following section in Settings now matches the look of every other settings card.
- Removed the orphaned "Never refreshed" label and refresh button from the search bar.

Version 2.5.0 - 2026-05-15

NEW
- Following Home (now Discover) - a landing view showing your starred channels, who's live now, and recent VODs from your favorites in one feed.
- Star a channel - every channel card has a star button to add it to your following list.
- One-click Twitch & Kick follow sync from Settings, no need to re-star each one.
- Optional live notifications when a starred channel goes live (off by default).

Version 2.4.0 - 2026-05-15

FIXED
- Switching between the modal player and the mini player no longer reloads the stream
- Audio-only mode now shows the visualizer instead of a black screen, and player controls remain responsive when switching to and from audio-only
- Opening the extension on a live channel page now goes straight to the live player again instead of landing on the empty Browse tab

IMPROVED
- Closing the modal or mini player and reopening it resumes playback from where you left off

Version 2.3.0 - 2026-04-30

NEW
- Keyboard Shortcuts: 60+ customizable shortcuts for player, navigation, and downloads
- Help Overlay: Press ? to view all shortcuts for the current context
- Rebinding: Settings panel lets you remap any action or disable shortcuts entirely
- Playback Speed: Adjust VOD playback rate from 0.25x to 2x with Shift+, / Shift+.

FIXED
- Mini player now uses the correct stream URL when opened from a live broadcast

Version 2.2.2 - 2026-03-31

OTHER
- Uninstall Survey: Opening a feedback page when the extension is uninstalled

Version 2.2.1 - 2026-03-28

NEW
- Non-Native Site Playback: VODs and live streams now play when the extension is opened from non-Twitch/Kick sites (e.g. toolbar button on any page)
- Background Proxy Loader: Custom HLS.js loader routes requests through the background service worker to bypass CORS on non-native sites
- Download Queue Broadcasts: Queue updates now reach content scripts injected on non-native sites

IMPROVED
- Live Buffer Memory: Buffer stores only URL metadata instead of full binary segment data, reducing RAM usage by ~1.8 GB at Source quality
- Platform Resolution: VOD/live stream API calls now use the user-selected platform instead of relying on site detection alone
- Live Chat on Non-Native Sites: Chat overlay works correctly when opened from non-Twitch/Kick pages via activePlatform prop
- Ad Filtering Loader: Playlist proxy now accepts a custom base loader for non-native site compatibility

FIXED
- HLS Error Recovery: Network and media errors now retry with limits (3 network, 2 media) instead of retrying infinitely or failing immediately
- CDN Bypass Cleanup: Old HLS instance and blob URL properly destroyed before falling back to video-weaver
- Seeking Listener Leak: Previous listener removed before attaching a new one on stream reload
- Downloads Tab: Clear All now removes completed/failed/cancelled remote downloads
- Downloads Tab: Resume All and Pause All now include remote downloads from Battles Record
- Downloads Tab: Remote download progress events from other devices no longer silently dropped
- Downloads Tab: Pause button now shown for remote queued and waiting-for-format states

Version 2.2.0 - 2026-03-26

NEW
- Ad-Free Live Playback: Watch live streams without commercial interruptions via CDN bypass with secondary stream replacement
- Battles Record Integration: Connect to the companion desktop app for automated cloud recording, remote VOD downloads, and cross-platform channel browsing (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Reddit)
- Auto Quality with Adaptive Bitrate: Live streams auto-select optimal quality based on bandwidth with dynamic indicator
- In-Player Quality Selector: Gear icon in player controls for quick quality switching, replacing the download panel dropdown
- Chat History Backfill: Recent messages load automatically when opening chat overlay on a live stream
- What's New Page: Interactive carousel shows new features after install and updates
- Channel Management: Add and remove recording channels directly from the extension player
- Channel State Sync: Recording channel list stays synchronized with the desktop app in real-time
- Custom Connection Address: Connect to Battles Record running on a different machine via custom IP and port
- Remote Downloads: Trigger and manage VOD downloads from the Battles Record desktop app
- Cross-Platform Browsing: Browse channels from YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Reddit through the extension

IMPROVED
- Livestream Bandwidth: ~50% reduction by capturing segments directly from HLS.js instead of duplicate downloads
- Ad Break Transitions: Smoother switching with secondary stream readiness detection
- Live Playback: Gradual 1.1x catch-up instead of hard-seeking when falling behind live edge
- Extension Icon: New design with crossed swords and replay arrow
- Toolbar Button: Uses the extension icon instead of a generic material icon
- Badge Display: Improved badge rendering via DOM image scraping
- Player Performance: Shared HLS configuration with Web Worker transmuxing across all player components
- Audio Downloads: Smarter format selection when MP4 exceeds size limit but MP3 does not

Version 2.1.4 - 2026-03-17

CHANGED
- Extension Icon: Updated icon to new design with crossed swords and replay arrow
- Toolbar Button Icon: Now uses the extension icon instead of a generic material icon

ADDED
- Toolbar Icon: Clicking the extension icon in the browser toolbar now toggles the modal (no popup needed)
- Badge Image Scraping: Chat badge images are now scraped directly from the platform's native DOM, with fallback to API-fetched badges with version resolution
- Ad-Free Live Stream Playback: Commercial breaks are automatically skipped during Twitch live streams by detecting server-side ad insertion and replacing ad segments with real stream content from a secondary connection
- Chat History Backfill: Live chat overlays now show up to 100 recent messages from the native chat panel when opened, instead of starting empty; works on both Twitch and Kick with deduplication to prevent overlap with incoming WebSocket messages
- Download Queue Persistence: Download queue state is now persisted to storage and restored after restarts; paused and queued downloads survive browser restarts
- FFmpeg Loading Timeout: FFmpeg WASM loading now has a 30-second timeout to prevent indefinite hangs
- Live Buffer Memory Tracking: Live buffer now tracks memory usage and warns when exceeding 1 GB threshold
- Bundled Fonts: Inter and Bebas Neue fonts are now bundled locally with the extension instead of loading from Google Fonts
- MiniPlayer Snap-to-Edge: Picture-in-Picture player now snaps to the nearest screen edge when drag is released

CHANGED
- Buffer Duration Slider: Replaced continuous slider with discrete steps (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120 min); warning shown above 20 min with Battles Record recommendation
- WhatsNew Page: Now rendered as an embedded page inside the modal instead of a floating dialog
- Chat Overlay Titles: Simplified to generic "Chat Replay" and "Live Chat"
- M3U8 Parser: Validates EXTM3U header, detects encrypted segments, discontinuity markers, and fMP4 initialization segments; uses integer millisecond arithmetic to avoid floating-point drift
- Kick VOD URL Support: Now handles the new Kick /video/{uuid} URL format in addition to the legacy format
- Audio Visualizer: Canvas dynamically matches CSS display size via ResizeObserver; requestAnimationFrame cancelled on destroy; AudioContext resumed on tab visibility change
- Kick Chat Button Watcher: Replaced polling interval with MutationObserver
- Badge Cache Pruning: Prunes expired entries on access, enforces maximum of 100 entries
- Dev-only Logging: All production logging replaced with a dev-gated logger; no output in production builds

FIXED
- Modal Reopen Tab State: Reopening the modal while on Settings or Downloads tab no longer triggers a live stream search that overwrites the header
- Standalone Chat Channel Resolution: StandaloneChat now resolves channel info from VOD ID for badge fetching
- Kick Auth Missing Methods: Removed references to non-existent methods on the Kick platform object
- Save Rejection Tracking: Fixed cancelling the save dialog leaving downloads stuck in "saving" state
- Download Recovery Metadata: R

[2.1.2] - 2026-01-29

Changed
- Audio-Only Large Downloads - Improved handling when audio downloads exceed 30 GB threshold
- Shows "Large Download Detected" modal instead of blocking error
- MP4 option disabled with explanation when it exceeds limit
- MP3 automatically selected as the recommended format
- Only shows error if both MP4 and MP3 exceed 30 GB

Fixed
- MP3 Size Estimation - MP3 downloads now show correct size estimate (~1.25 GB instead of ~26 GB for long VODs)
- Size calculation now uses audio-only bitrate (128 kbps) when MP3 format is selected

[2.1.1] - 2026-01-29

Fixed
- Keyboard Input Hijacking - Kick and other host pages can no longer capture keyboard events from extension input fields
- All modals and overlays now stop keyboard event propagation (keydown, keyup, keypress)
- Affects: main modal, mini player, chat overlays, emote picker, and all prompt dialogs

[2.1.0] - 2026-01-29

Added
- Kick Platform Support - Full support for the Kick streaming platform
- VOD browsing with thumbnails, durations, and categories
- VOD playback with quality selection
- Live stream playback with ad-free viewing
- Time range selection for partial VOD downloads
- Download queue integration (same features as Twitch)
- Live chat overlay with real-time messages via Pusher WebSocket
- VOD chat replay with emote rendering (global and channel emotes displayed as images)
- OAuth authentication for sending chat messages
- Picture-in-Picture support
- Audio visualizer for audio-only streams
- Platform Abstraction Layer - New architecture for multi-platform support
- src/lib/platforms/ - Platform detection and unified interface
- src/lib/kick/ - Kick-specific API, chat, and OAuth modules
- Automatic platform detection based on hostname
- Host permissions for *.kick.com added to manifest

Changed
- Extension now works on both Twitch and Kick domains
- Documentation updated to reflect multi-platform support

Fixed
- Kick VOD URL Parsing - Modal now correctly auto-fills when opened on Kick VOD pages
- Added UUID pattern support for Kick VOD IDs (e.g., vod:b63f835c-7298-432c-a9a4-e0976cc5a16f)
- Kick VOD lookup now returns channel information for the player UI
- Session-based authentication for sending chat messages on Kick

Notes
- Unpublished VOD recovery remains Twitch-only (requires SullyGnome integration)
- Kick uses different API endpoints and WebSocket protocol for chat

[2.0.0] - 2026-01-24

Added

• Twitch OAuth Authentication - Connect with Twitch button in Settings
• Secure OAuth flow using chrome.identity.launchWebAuthFlow
• Enables authenticated features like chat sending and following channels
• Live Chat Sending - Send messages in live chat overlays
• ChatInput component with real-time message sending
• Authenticated connection to Twitch IRC
• Shows chat restrictions (emote-only, follower-only, subscriber-only, slow mode)
• Emote Picker - Browse and insert Twitch emotes
• Channel emotes, global emotes, and subscriber emotes
• Search functionality and recently used emotes
• Integrates with ChatInput for easy emote insertion
• @Mention Autocomplete - Type @ to autocomplete usernames from recent chat
• Follow Button - Follow channels directly from follower-only chat restriction notice
• Chrome Web Store listing documentation with summary, description, and permission justifications

Changed

• Updated extension description to better reflect full feature set
• Follower-only chat indicator now clearer and more compact

Fixed

• Firefox OAuth authentication now works correctly
• Uses browser.identity.getRedirectURL() to get the correct redirect URI for Firefox
• Chrome authentication unchanged (preserves existing behavior)
• Content script bundled as IIFE to avoid ES module import issues
• Auth callback paths patched correctly for extension context
• Badge API 401 errors when authenticated via OAuth (Client-ID mismatch between OAuth token and API request)

Changelog for previous versions can be found at: https://teambattles.gg/docs/tools/battles-replay#changelog