Before you start
Choral is a floating remote control for macOS, not a streaming service. YouTube continues playing in Chrome under your own account. Choral Connector sends the current track and supported controls to the Choral app through a local connection on your Mac.
You need macOS 15 or later, Google Chrome, the Choral app, and the free Choral Connector extension. The extension does not receive access to YouTube until you explicitly enable that website.
1. Install Choral Connector
- Install Choral on your Mac. Download it directly or install it from the Mac App Store, then open the app.
- Add Choral Connector to Chrome. Open the Chrome Web Store listing and choose Add to Chrome.
- Keep the extension available. Open Chrome's Extensions menu and pin Choral Connector if you want its icon to stay visible in the toolbar.
2. Enable YouTube in Chrome
- Open the music website. Visit https://www.youtube.com/ and sign in.
- Open Choral Connector. Click its toolbar icon while the YouTube tab is active.
- Enable this site. Click Enable Choral on this site, then approve Chrome's permission prompt. Choral requests access only to the music website you are enabling.
- Start a song. Play a normal track on the website. The popup should change to a Ready message after Choral recognizes the player.
3. Control YouTube from Choral
Regular YouTube is useful for live performances, DJ sets, long mixes, and music that is not available in a streaming catalog. Choral displays the video title and channel as now-playing information and lets the selected YouTube tab behave like another music source.
Open Choral's music-source menu and select YouTube. This selection determines which source receives play, pause, and shortcut commands when several music apps or browser players are open at the same time.
- Play and pause
- Previous and next item
- Seek within a video
- Like and unlike
You can also configure global shortcuts in Choral Settings. They work while you are using another app, so common actions do not require bringing Chrome or Choral to the front.
4. Like or favorite the current song
Choral's heart maps to YouTube's Like action for the active video. You must be signed in to YouTube for the like to persist. Clicking the heart again removes your like when YouTube exposes that state.
If the heart is gray and cannot be clicked, the current player context has not exposed a reliable like or favorite action. Choral deliberately disables unavailable actions instead of hiding controls or guessing where to click.
What Limited Support means
YouTube has Limited Support. Playback, previous and next playlist item, seeking, and likes are supported. Shuffle and repeat remain disabled. For the complete YouTube Music control set, use the dedicated YouTube Music guide.
Music websites can change their player interfaces and internal behavior. Choral's support label describes the current integration, but a future website update can temporarily affect one or more controls.
Troubleshooting
The video is playing but Choral shows another source
Choose YouTube from Choral's music-source menu. Paused sources remain selectable, and the selected source determines where the next command goes.
Previous or next is disabled
Those actions require a YouTube playlist, queue, or another navigable item. A standalone video may not provide both directions.
Shuffle and repeat are gray
This is expected for regular YouTube. Open music.youtube.com and enable YouTube Music if you need Choral's full shuffle and repeat support.
Choral Connector says the app is not connected
Open the Choral app and leave it running. The extension connects only to a local address on your Mac. If the status does not recover, quit and reopen Choral, then reopen the extension popup.
Ready to control YouTube?
Install Choral and Choral Connector, enable the website, and start a track. Your browser keeps playing; Choral becomes the remote.