Here’s what theater mode is and how to force YouTube to always use it.
What Is YouTube’s Theater Mode?
“Theater mode” is far superior.
Lucas Gouveia / Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
Importantly, it pushes the sidebar out of view and below the video, removing those distractions.
It also dims the page background for a cinematic experience.
It might be called “Cinema Mode” for you, depending on your location.
Chances are, you’ll quickly become a theater mode convert.
Thankfully, there are a few tricks that let you automatically use theater mode.
It’s not an official YouTube extension, but it’s lightweight and does the job well.
If you prefer not to use an extension, you could manually set a cookie.
This also works nicely, but you will need to recreate it if youclear your cookies.
Next, reload the page or navigate to another YouTube video.
The video, and all those you watch thereafter, will automatically play in theater mode.
To reverse this change, repeat the process but change “wide=1” to “wide=0”.
YouTube’s theater mode has existed for years, so hopefully it won’t go away any time soon.
It’s the superior way to watch YouTube, after all.
Now you’re able to enjoy videos fully, without some colorful clickbait thumbnail vying for your attention.
