Devs Building Tools to Fix Browser Chaos
Developers are experiencing frustration with browser workflows, including tab management, privacy concerns during screen sharing, repetitive tasks, and a lack of readily available tools for common development needs. They are building Chrome extensions to address these issues, often driven by personal need and a desire for better control and efficiency. This highlights a gap in existing browser functionality and automation solutions.
SOURCES (60)
“Imagine the time you save now, not having to answer that question every week *laugh*”
There are tons of options for that, ig? Correct me if I'm wrong
“Why not make them public? Like you said, making them public forces me to document them and not have undocumented monstrosities that no one else could reasonably be expected to audit, maintain, or even understand The coolest tool I wrote, is a simple DynDNS shell script that only works with desec.io (btw the IMHO best DynDNS provider there is). Some backstory on why I wrote it: I am not a programmer, I don't code and I don't use AI for coding. I wanted create a PR for the defacto standard”
Now you've got me interested. I'm currently using headless Playwright as the browser, but Cloak Browser sounds like it might be a better fit. Thanks!
“Hi everyone! After months of development, I finally released Konode 1.0.0 . The idea came from a very simple frustration. I was using the Helium browser on multiple computers, but my bookmarks, browsing history, and open sessions weren't syncing reliably. I wanted to keep using the browser, but I also wanted my data to follow me between devices. Instead of switching browsers, I decided to build my own solution. Konode synchronizes your browser data across your own devices, including: Bookmar”
“That’s a fast iteration—nice. The visible control and flash opt-in address the two biggest issues. I’d still treat invert and flip as consented effects: they may feel harmless to the sender, but unexpected remote control is the underlying concern. A per-chat “allow effects” toggle plus a short cooldown would keep the fun without surprises. For sync quality, log drift and resync events and test ten pairs through a 20-minute session across mobile and desktop; that will surface backgrounding and po”
“Thanks for the advice, I'll post a video soon showing how it handles clicks, how it handles cookies and various popups.”
“Ad guard in docker for network ad blocks with additional repositories added . UBlock origin on Mozilla as well”
Glad it helped! On permissions since that's your main worry: the mindset that worked for me was "justify every single line." For each permission in the manifest, I made sure the store…
“I rolled a browser-based online jam room leveraging PlainJS, WebRTC, and WebSockers. It works pretty well within a limited distance, but while I can fight latency locally, over land the speed of light conquers all. That said I've implemented some strategies to minimize it. Looking for musicians willing to spent 15-30 minutes in a room together. Try joining a room or creating a private one, play around with sound check, try different input methods. Or just jam and let me know how it went. Mai”
“Hey everyone, wanted to share a project I’ve made some time ago. WhisperLogger I’m the type of person who constantly needs to write things down while I work—whether it’s a quick dev log, a random research note, or just a thought I need to get out of my head. The problem is, opening up a full text editor or a bulky notes app completely ruins my focus. I just wanted something dead simple that stays out of the way until the exact second I need it. So I built a tiny, native Mac utility called Whispe”
“Ok, used it for a bit. Everything seems to flow smoothly and makes logical sense. I did have a few times where it ran slow for me or scrolling got weird on some pages but that was intermittent. I did run it through Veriwasp and looks mostly clean with a few a11y flags. I think the last step in the test run is unneeded (clicking "Save") in creating a job so that may or may not be helpful. Here is the report it generated for the Sign in -> Job creation flow: https://veriwasp.com/r/ywk”
“Hey everyone! I'd like to share a project I've been working on: Njectify . It's a browser extension that lets you inject CSS and JavaScript into any website, making it easy to prototype UI changes, test styles, and experiment without modifying the original source code. https://reddit.com/link/1uzyemd/video/5giedm2w70eh1/player Some of the features include: • Live CSS editing with an intuitive editor. • Instant visual changes on any website. • Automatic export of your CSS to Tailwind”
“Glad it was useful! One more thing while I was looking closer: the scrolling marquee band ("fully audited by nobody," etc.) has a visible stutter, it goes black for a frame and resets instead of looping smoothly. Small thing, but worth fixing since a glitch there undercuts the exact illusion the page depends on, it reads as an actual bug rather than an intentional joke. Usually happens when the marquee content isn't duplicated back to back on a double-width track, so there's a”
“Honestly? Use Claude code or Grok (Grok has no usage limits for coding. Claude is better from what I've noticed.) tell it what you need. What features are important and which are nice to have but not essential. In a day with Grok you can have your own social media tool built how you want. With Claude it might take a few days depending upon budget. If you have no one with the know how I'd be happy to help and you can try out anything I build before tipping me what you think it's worth”
“ClipMargin (free Chrome extension): timestamped notes on any video, and I want your input on the Notion side before I build it. What it does today: a note panel opens next to the video (YouTube, Udemy, Vimeo, Skillshare, Instagram, and any site via right click). Every note saves the exact second automatically, you can capture the frame on screen with a note, and everything from every platform lands in one searchable library. Export is plain Markdown right now. What I want to learn from Notion us”
“https://extensionarchive.com In August 2026, a lot of popular chrome extensions that still are in Manifest version 2 will get deleted from Chrome Web Store. These extensions have a lot of current users that will look for a new alternative. This is the opportunity for new builders to become the modern version of that extension. ExtensionArchive ranks them based on potential through a ranking algorithm and help the user with a prompt to rebuild it.”
“TL;DR: This post is part update, mostly thank you for your support :)) Observer is an open-source app that lets local LLMs watch your screen and notify you (WhatsApp/SMS/email/Discord) when something happens. A year of your feedback later , setup went from "flaky and very manual" (your words, and fair hahaha) to literally typing one sentence and the app auto-controlling itself!! Hey r/LocalLLaMA ! A year ago I launched Observer here and a LOT of you tried it. The consensus was "co”
“I really dislike Keepers browser extension, it always seems to be in the way and never behaving in a helpful way. Other than that it does work well enough.”
“For those who've been trying Ellipsus, did you run into any issues with the website? I've been using it for a month now, and I really love the timer feature in Google Docs that wasn't a thing as much as I know. It's just recently that the website has been lagging, and idk if it's a problem with my laptop that I need to be more careful with or if it's a technical issue with the website submitted by /u/Flaky-Piece-7358 [link] [comments]”
“We all know the problem: You want to take a screenshot of a scrollable area and end up messing around with the browser’s developer tools. That got on my nerves, so I built a small userscript. Click the camera button, select the scrollable container, and the script saves its complete contents as a PNG—including nested scrollable areas. Runs directly in the browser with Violentmonkey or Tampermonkey. GitHub: https://github.com/Erzmaster/scrollable-element-screenshot I’d appreciate it if you tried”
“Yep, that’s the <iframe sandbox> + postMessage() part, but you’d have to setup both sides of the API (the SDK inside of the iframe making postMessage() calls, and the listener on the parent page interpreting those sent messages) very carefully to avoid potentially leaking information. There’s probably libraries out there to help handle some of it, but I don’t know of any off the top of my head.”
“Pretty sure the only way to guarantee zero outgoing requests would be to sandbox the extensions. Wrapping XHR/fetch as suggested would catch most things, but what about `new Image()` or simply creating DOM elements like forms or links and submitting/clicking them via JavaScript. You’d be forever chasing exploits. You might be get away with <iframe sandbox> + a very strict CSP policy + some kind of postMessage() communication channel API to talk back to the parent document, but it would sti”
“There were incorrect links in the readme, I've already fixed them, you can check them out”
“I’d imagine a companion browser plugin to mask the history would be the best option if you’re hellbent on rewriting the history of”
“Any advice for doing zoom/remote sessions? submitted by /u/One_Bid1666 [link] [comments]”
“Not enabled in my org, but looking forward to it. Can you share how you approached building your slack reader and choosing what to filter up? Pitfalls of your decisions? What have you learned from your implementation”
“been emailing a different google account I have and it never seems to mark it as opened. Any thoughts on why?”
“What are the main limitations right now? Since it only launched recently, I would be a little concerned about reliability”
“I put the NIC cage chrome extension on my co workers computer when they left it alone. When they came back they freaked out and called the head of security as neither had seen it before, I come back to see him on the phone freaking out and told him what it was, the head of security then instantly pinged me asking for the extension as he loved it. Coworker was less than impressed”
“I'm not sure if you know it or not, but clicking on the title of a file or in the search box and other places won't show a cursor anymore. It was pretty confusing at first and the main reason I decided to turn the plugin off for the time being.”
“https://preview.redd.it/5cdpu6www9dh1.png?width=3456&format=png&auto=webp&s=b7f8e539043e4cfdd51939b7f2b32356b6e0ee84 Hi friends, I'm back with yet another update to Rybbit. I fell behind my monthly release cadence a bit this time due to personal travels, but v2.8.0 should come out very soon, in 1-2 weeks. Biggest changes: React Native SDK and mobile app option for when adding a property Improved bot-blocking: Multi-layer bot protection using ASN data, user-agent patterns, header”
“Founder here. I've noticed I constantly copy an OTP, URL, or code snippet on my phone, then send it to myself on WhatsApp or Telegram just to use it on my PC. I'm considering building an app that automatically syncs copied text between Android and a Chrome extension, with shared clipboard history. Before I spend a few months building it, I'd love honest feedback: Is this something you'd actually use? What would stop you from using it? Is there an existing solution you already pre”
“This is really cool. It’s like having a mini debate coach right in your browser. I can see this being super useful for cutting through the noise and getting a more balanced view on hot topics. Can't wait to try it out!”
“But still not with any link, yeah? You don’t bypass bot protection, you don’t work with “canvas” websites, you don’t work with js heavy websites who heavily restrict api access, etc etc etc So what’s the point of “simple routing agent can’t…”? You say it as your own agent isn’t simple and very complex”
“Biggest issue with that is you have no idea who you're sending your prompts and data to, and there's no agreement between you and them about anything at all. For anything even slightly sensitive it's completely unusable. The only use case I can imagine is using it to summarize an article, which you don't want to do because it would drastically reduce ad revenue. Maybe it would be helpful for documentation, but if it's complex enough to need summarizing it's likely too com”
“You see the little blue icon on the bottom left of your note? Press that, then a notif should pop up. When it does press this button press the little blue icon -> notif will show up -> press expand button ( the one the screenshot is pointing to ) https://preview.redd.it/ojow2twjs4dh1.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=513f499fc07a735ad83bcf738194f5512977fc87”
Still the same thing is happening. Notification permission is enabled.
“I’ve been experimenting with Chrome’s built-in AI APIs and Gemini Nano, and I’m curious whether anyone here has used them for a real project or browser extension. The proposition is appealing: inference can happen locally, user data does not need to be sent to a third-party model, and developers do not have a per-request cloud API bill. However, most examples I’ve seen involve summarization, rewriting, or simple classification. Has anyone built—or found—an extension that uses Chrome’s local mode”
“Only thing i can really find is some paid app called Centro. I am being tasked with looking into how slack can be leveraged for case management. But from what i can see i don't see much that would enable collaboration on cases via slack instead of chatter. Hope im wrong! let me know if anyone's utilizing slack for case management submitted by /u/wangmobile [link] [comments]”
“I kind of built this out of frustration from a couple situations that I ran into: * I hated when youtube videos put a QR code in the video or a link that was nowhere in the description so I needed to pull out my phone to scan it only to find out the website isn’t mobile friendly or I needed to rewind the video to read and type in the link into my browser. * My colleagues doing a screenshare and then I need to pause the conversation to have them share me the URL on their screen so they copy/paste”
“A good example of ideas to go through with is the extension graveyard that will occur in August 2026. A lot of good extensions still have Manifest Version 2 which google no longer supports and a lot of them have good rating and users. When those extensions disappear, they will look for new ones. At https://www.extensionarchive.com you can find your potential next idea which are rated based on potential”
“They're trying a bit better right now with Happy Eyeballs version 3. But the error messaging is still the same old mess. See https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40736240 for example, i hate this one. If your ISP is crap (only old IPv4), they blame you with telling to check for typo's. 🙃”
“Oh, that’s definitely a bug. What browser and OS are you using? Also, do you have any dark mode or content-blocking extensions enabled?”
“Web accessible native inputs and controls that work correctly with their native screenreaders”
“Direct bug/UX reports to the site creator/dev team by the user and perhaps AI-assisted so the user doesn't have to type anything”
“Posted about this here a little while back, but never showed it actually working — so here's a 30-second demo. Hexbrief watches a vetted set of company engineering blogs (Airbnb, Cloudflare, Stripe, Dropbox…), runs each post through a quality gate, and gives you six reads a day , each broken into problem → approach → results. The demo walks the whole loop: skim the daily six, open one, read the structured breakdown, save it, jump to the original. What I was going for: Six, then you're do”
