Skip Through the Silent Parts of a Video With This Browser Extension

Want to quickly power through a lecture or educational video, but don't want to distort the speech of the speaker? The browser extension Jump Cutter can do exactly this by speeding up only the silent pauses during a talk or lecture.

This free and open-source tool scans the audio of the video you're watching and speeds up playback when there's no audio. This is particularly useful if you're listening to a lecture by...someone who...pauses...unnecessarily...before getting back to their point. To get started, simply download the extension for Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, then load any video in your browser. You can also load videos saved to your computer using the extension—just click the extension icon, then click open a local file and you can drag the video over.

Whatever video you're playing, you can click the extension's icon to see it in action. The bar will show you the volume of the video over time. Anything marked in red indicates a pause. You can decide to speed the video up during those pauses up to eight times the original playback speed. The result: you can get through a talk a lot faster.

You can customize a few things, including the volume point that's considered quiet, how much the video should speed up during pauses, and whether to leave a margin before and after pauses. You can also speed up speech overall, if you want, though of course that will more severely distort the speech of the presenter.

I, personally, think such tools should only be used when you're severely crunched for time, or when a speaker's excess of pauses is consistently driving you nuts. It's also worth noting that pauses aren't necessarily dead space—they're essential for things like comedic timing, for example. So I wouldn't leave this on if you're watching a stand-up comedy routine, or even just a professor who is known for getting a few good jokes in.

With all of those caveats aside, though, this is a simple tool that does the job its advertised for. It's no wonder this tool is popular with college students, sure, but I could imagine using it for catching up on work meetings too.