While the desktop version of Google Chrome has just been updated to 72, the next version, 73, will allow websites to bind JavaScript events to media keys. This means that websites will be able to listen to those buttons and respond accordingly, even if Google Chrome is a background application. Some websites should support this immediately, because it was already available on mobile, although I am not sure which ones and how.

Image Credit: Google

The update should be useful to those of us who, for example, listen to YouTube playlists. I am curious what sort of controls Google will add to tune its behavior. For instance, I probably do not want to close every old YouTube tab that I have laying around just so I can use Spotify in peace.

The feature will be added to Chrome OS, macOS, and Windows. Linux users will need to wait a little bit for some reason.