2025-12-11 11:14:00
For quite some time, the desktop version of the Chrome browser lacked the ability to natively (without additional software) view HLS (m3u8) streams. This prompted developers to create numerous Chrome plugins for viewing direct m3u8 video links, such as HLS Player, Video Downloader, and Native HLS Playback. This is in addition to the fact that several HTML5 player projects for viewing video in the browser using JavaScript and MSE API exist and are actively being developed, such as JW Player, Flowplayer, THEOplayer, Bitmovin, HLS.js, and Video.js.
However, starting around the end of September or beginning of October 2025, with a Chrome update to one of the builds, version 141 or 142, during our tests, we noticed the ability to play direct links to HLS streams in Chrome without using any third-party plugins or HTML5 video players. And not just playback with basic start/stop controls, but also subtitle and online translation options…
No mention of this new option could be found in the Chrome release notes, which most likely indicates that Google quite stong about introducing this new feature to the general public in a fully tested form and plans to implement it widely for viewing streaming HLS video on the Internet.