The computer became not just a tool for carrying out work tasks, but also a way to get entertainment. And since Windows provides various customization options for the desktop workspace, why not also personalize other items to your liking?
With that thought in mind, the developers of Custom Progress Bar for YouTube created a simple extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge that can change the default progress bar of YouTube from the plain red dot to a more animated and colorful icon.
Replace the default progress bar on YouTube
The extension is easily installed in Chrome or Edge and immediately available right next to the address bar. Evidently, you need to navigate to YouTube and load a video to test it out.
I loaded one of Softpedia’s slideshows during the test to check out several progress bar types and see what they look like on the screen. The default library the extension provides includes a few starter icons, adventure-related bars and game animations.
I enjoyed having the mushroom and the star in the Super Mario game used for displaying the playback progress on YouTube.
Get over one thousand progress bars online or create your own
If the defaults are not enough (and, trust me, they won’t), you can head over to the official site of the extension by clicking the ‘More’ button. Adding a new progress bar to your library just takes a click and once added, they will all be displayed in their own category in the extension’s popup window.
Exploring the progress bar library, I discovered several cartoon and animation characters, animals, memes, and many more.
An interesting thing is that you can also build your own progress bar using the so-called ‘Constructor’, which allows you to use an image on your PC as a scrubber for the YouTube player. In other words, any SVG, PNG, JPG or GIF file with a size of less than 400x400px can be uploaded and transformed into a progress bar for YouTube.
Alternatively, you can tamper with the default looks of the YouTube progress bar by changing its color, size, shape, borders, shadow, position, animation, and so on.
Customize your experience on YouTube with new preogress bars
Extensions like Custom Progress Bar for YouTube are meant to streamline an enhanced and more entertaining experience online. It was definitely fun watching Pikachu run to the end of the video while listening to music on YouTube.