Google has been planning to update the Chrome browser to support the multimedia buttons on the keyboard, when you need to control music and video, you can use the keyboard keys. In future versions of Chrome, users can use the keyboard to pause, resume, forward/backward, change tracks, and more.

Currently, if you play a YouTube video in Chrome and use the multimedia keys on your keyboard to pause, resume, or forward/backward, the browser will not respond to button actions. Using the Google Chrome 73 browser will support you to use multimedia buttons on your keyboard and will support Windows 10, macOS and Chrome OS systems. Even if you switch to any other app, the Chrome browser seems to respond to keyboard commands. For example, if you play YouTube videos in the Chrome browser and minimize the browser to the taskbar, the keyboard buttons can also control multimedia on Chrome. Even if the Chrome browser is hidden in many applications that the user opens and forgets, the Chrome browser will still respect the multimedia button commands. If your desktop or laptop keyboard is equipped with full multimedia keys, you can also skip forward through the playlist. This feature is useful if you need to quickly stop YouTube videos or Spotify network music playback. Most modern desktop or laptop keyboards support multimedia keys, and you can find the multimedia hotkeys where the function keypad is located. Chrome 73 will support play, pause, backward, forward, previous track and next track commands. Google will also support developers using the Media Session API and customizing their website to respond to multimedia keys. The Google Chrome 73 browser is expected to be available next month, supporting multimedia keys and other improvements, including an improved picture-in-picture mode.