Background Playback Helper (YouTube & Vimeo) — Phase3

• Firefox for Android: Helps maintain background audio playback when switching apps or locking the screen.
• Firefox Desktop: Prevents videos from pausing when switching tabs and stabilizes playback when loading video sites in Firefox sidebar or DevTools responsive mode. Verified compatible with Firefox Desktop on Windows. Other desktop platforms are not officially tested.
• Active Status Indicator: Automatically detects supported sites and displays a green icon and badge to indicate when the helper is active.
• Dark Mode UI: Minimal, dark-themed popup interface for toggling features.
• Optional Keep-Alive: Sends harmless, non-character activity signals that may reduce inactivity-based pauses on some players.
• Privacy Focused: All logic runs locally. No user data is collected or transmitted.

--Developer Update (February 2, 2026):
• Recent YouTube changes. We've confirmed that YouTube has begun blocking background playback for non-Premium users on both mobile and desktop. The current release, 0.4.1, already handles most of the changes and should work for almost all users, as confirmed by recent reviews and internal testing.
• Upcoming release. We are testing version 0.5.0, which adds further protections against YouTube’s newest detection methods as well as a new feature that automatically dismisses messages such as “Still watching?” on YouTube and YouTube Music. However, since YouTube's changes appear to be rolling out in phases, we have decided to wait to release version 0.5.0 until YouTube’s behavior stabilizes.
• If 0.4.1 does not work for you. While 0.4.1 should work for most users, if you encounter issues, we would ask that you report them directly to our support email below instead of leaving a negative review. Please include your browser version, device type (desktop or mobile), and when playback stops. This helps ensure 0.5.0 fixes as many real-world cases as possible caused by YouTube's recent changes. Thank you for your support!

Version 0.4.1 (current): Release Notes

• Fixed Firefox for Android issue where the extension options panel would not open while media was playing.
• Improved background playback reliability on YouTube Music and supported sites when the browser is minimized or the screen is locked.
• General stability improvements for tab switching and visibility handling.

Version 0.4.0: Release Notes

• Added master enable/disable toggle
• Improved background playback reliability
• Added main-world visibility handling for better compatibility
• Improved popup UI and control behavior
• Improved icon and badge status indicators