Listen to YouTube together without leaving VS Code. One person creates a room, shares an
8-character code, and everyone in the room hears the same queue at the same moment.
How it works
Open the SyncRoom view in the activity bar and choose Create room.
Send the room code to your friends. They choose Join and type it.
Paste a YouTube video or playlist link. Anyone in the room can add, reorder, skip, pause or seek.
The chat has its own icon in the activity bar; unread messages show as a badge on it.
Whoever created the room can lock the queue and the playback with the two toggles in the queue header, so only they can change the list or play, pause and skip.
There is no account and no SyncRoom server. Rooms exist only while someone is in them.
Requirements
A Chromium-based browser installed: Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Brave or Chromium.
VS Code cannot play YouTube audio by itself, so SyncRoom runs the official YouTube
player in that browser, hidden in the background. Use SyncRoom: Show or Hide Player
Window to see it, for example to skip an ad.
An internet connection that can reach YouTube.
Commands
Command
What it does
SyncRoom: Create Room
Start a new room
SyncRoom: Join Room…
Enter a room with its code
SyncRoom: Add YouTube Link…
Add a video or playlist to the queue
SyncRoom: Play / Pause
Also available by clicking the status bar
SyncRoom: Next Track
Skip for everyone
SyncRoom: Show or Hide Player Window
Toggle the small YouTube window
SyncRoom: Copy Room Code
Copy the code to share it
SyncRoom: Change Name…
Change the name the others see
SyncRoom: Leave Room
Stop listening
Settings
Setting
Default
Meaning
syncroom.displayName
(asked once)
Your name in the room
syncroom.browserPath
(auto)
Browser used to play audio
syncroom.directConnections
true
Connect peer to peer. Turn off to hide your IP from the room
syncroom.relays
4 public relays
Nostr relays used as a fallback path
Privacy
Anyone who has the room code can join and control playback. Share it only with people you trust.
With direct connections on, the other people in the room can see your IP address (this is how
peer-to-peer works). Turn syncroom.directConnections off to send everything through relays.
Messages that travel through public relays are encrypted with a key derived from the room code.
The relays see that someone is using a room, not what is playing.
YouTube sees your playback the same way it does in a browser tab.
Known limits
Playlists add their first 15 videos. YouTube Mixes (list=RD…) add the first batch YouTube generates, about 25 videos.
Some videos cannot be played outside youtube.com, or are blocked in your region. They are marked
as not available for you and the rest of the room keeps listening.
In hidden mode an ad cannot be skipped; show the player window to skip it.
Each VS Code window runs its own audio engine: joining the same room from two windows on one computer plays the audio twice.
Tested on Windows. macOS and Linux should work but are not verified yet.
Your computer clock must be roughly right, or relays may reject your messages.
