Media and picture in picture

Control video and sound in other tabs without switching to them, and keep a video in view while you work in another tab.

Now Playing

When a tab you aren't looking at plays something you can hear, a Now Playing strip appears at the bottom of the sidebar. It shows what plays (the title the site gives, such as a YouTube video or a Spotify song, or the tab's title) and the site or artist, with:

−15 and +15: back or forward 15 seconds
▶ / ❚❚: play or pause
⧉: picture in picture (videos only)
the position, such as "1:05 / 3:07", and a bar for it

Click the title to go to the tab. × hides the strip until that tab starts playing again. The strip goes away while the tab is on screen, since its own controls are right there, and when the tab closes or is unloaded.

If several tabs play, the strip shows the one that started last.

An article being read aloud shows in the strip too, with ‹‹ and ›› going back or on a paragraph instead of 15 seconds, and an estimate of the time.

Play or pause, from anywhere

⌥⌘P (View → Play or Pause Media) plays or pauses the video or sound in the tab you are on, or, if it has none, the one in the Now Playing strip. It can start a video you haven't started yet.

Picture in picture

⌃⌘P (View → Picture in Picture) puts the video in a small window that floats over your other windows. Press it again, or use the window's own button, to put it back in the page.

When you leave a video

With Picture in picture when you leave a video on (the default, in settings), a video that plays goes into picture in picture by itself when you switch to another tab, and back into the page when you return. A video you paused, or one without sound that the page plays in the background, stays where it is.

A tab in picture in picture is never unloaded to save memory.

Muting a tab

A tab that plays sound shows ♪ in the sidebar. Click ♪ to mute the tab; it then shows 🔇, and a click unmutes it. View → Mute Tab does the same for the tab you are on. Muting silences everything the page plays, without pausing it. A muted tab that keeps playing still counts as playing, so it isn't unloaded.

A tab forgets that it is muted when it is unloaded.

Video calls

Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Whereby, Zoom and other calls in the browser work in Litr: open the meeting link and join.

The first time a site wants your camera or microphone, a strip above the page asks: meet.google.com wants to use your camera and microphone. Allow or Don't Allow; Litr remembers the answer for the site, and you can change it in View → Settings for This Site…. In a forget tab the answer is for that one time.

macOS asks too, once: allow Litr to use the camera and microphone. If you said no, turn Litr on in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera (and Microphone), then reload the page.

Sharing your screen: when the call asks to share, macOS shows its own picker for a window or the whole screen. The first time, macOS asks you to allow Litr in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording.

A tab in a call is never put to sleep; see Tabs.

Starting a call and inviting people

File → New Call, or New Call in the command palette (⌘K):

Google Meet makes a meeting for your Google account (signed in to Google in Litr) and opens it.
Jitsi Meet opens a new room with a name nobody will guess. Jitsi asks the first person in to sign in, with Google or GitHub for example.
FaceTime opens the FaceTime app; Create Link there makes a link people can join from any browser, Windows and Android included.

Once you're in the call, a strip above the page offers:

Copy Link, to paste anywhere.
Invite…: the macOS share menu with the call's link, for Mail, Messages, AirDrop and the rest.
Add to Calendar: Calendar opens with an event for the call, at the next quarter hour, 30 minutes, with the link. Change the time if you like and add the people you're inviting there; Calendar sends them the invitation from your calendar account (iCloud, Google or Exchange).

× puts the strip away. Invite to Call… and Add Call to Calendar are in the File menu and the command palette too, for any call you're in: Google Meet, Jitsi Meet, Whereby, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and any other page while it uses your camera or microphone (its address is the link then).

The link you send is the meeting's own address, without anything that says which of your accounts is signed in. Litr doesn't send anything itself, and has no server for calls.

Limits

Litr sees the video and audio elements on the page itself. Players inside an embedded frame (a YouTube video on a news site, for example) and sound a page makes without one (some games) have no Now Playing strip; ♪ and muting still work for them.
Sites that make their own player (Netflix, for instance) may not allow picture in picture.