Twitch - Keep Tab Active

Prevents Twitch from auto-pausing or throttling video when the tab is inactive

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Author

Vikindor

Daily installs

Total installs

Ratings

0 0 0

Version

1.0.0

Created

2025-10-27

Updated

2025-12-15

Size

5.39 KB

License

MIT

Applies to

twitch.tv

Twitch - Keep Tab Active

Userscript for browsers that prevents Twitch from auto-pausing/muting or throttling playback when the tab is inactive.
It fakes visibility/focus, guards programmatic pauses (only user-initiated pauses are allowed), keeps the player “in view” for observers, automatically recovers interrupted streams, and sends light activity pings so streams keep playing.

Particularly useful for those who like to farm Twitch Drops or keep streams running in the background without interruptions.

✨ Features

Keeps Twitch streams playing in background tabs.
Prevents auto-pause and auto-mute when switching tabs.
Fakes visibility and focus so Twitch thinks the tab is active.
Automatically resumes playback after stream interruptions (raids, reconnects, player errors).
Sends light activity signals to avoid idle timeouts.

⚙ How it works (high-level)

Pretends the tab never goes background by spoofing visibility/focus APIs.
Blocks Twitch’s internal events that detect when you switch tabs.
Allows only real user gestures to pause playback — everything else is auto-resumed.
Automatically clicks the player to recover playback after interruptions.
Keeps the player “visible” to page observers.
Periodically sends harmless activity signals to prevent idle triggers.
Tries to use navigator.wakeLock('screen') when supported.

⚠️ Notes & Limitations

While this script works reliably for most cases, it may not yet cover all edge situations or browser variations. If you encounter a specific case where it doesn’t behave as expected — feel free to contact me and share the details.
Focuses purely on client-side behavior — it doesn’t bypass server-side throttling, ads, or access restrictions.
May behave differently with extensions that modify Twitch’s player or tab activity.
Twitch frequently updates their SPA — if something breaks, please report it.