Google is testing a new feature called “Global Media Controls (GMC)” in Chrome that would allow users to pause or play video from any tab.
GMC was introduced during a recent Chrome Canary release.
Now, a play icon will appear next to the URL if audio or video is playing in any tab. Clicking on this icon will bring up a larger control bar that lets you pause, play or skip forward/backward, all without having to go into the tab and click on the video manually.
According to sites like ZDNet and Engadget, the pause/play button doesn’t work on every site and is causing consistent crashing at this time. It’s unclear when the feature may become more stable and roll out to a wider audience.
Try out the pause/play button for yourself by downloading the Canary browser and enabling the flag chrome://flags/#global-media-controls.
