Eyes On

Look away and your video pauses. Look back and it plays.

YouTube, Netflix, HBO Max, LinkedIn Learning, any site with a video. For Chrome, Edge and Brave.

Download Eyes On (.zip, 7.3 MB)

On a tablet? Open this

Watch: how to install (2 min)

Install in 2 minutes

Unzip the file you downloaded. You'll get a folder called eyes-on. Keep it somewhere permanent, like Documents.
In Chrome, go to chrome://extensions (type it in the address bar). In Edge it's edge://extensions, in Brave brave://extensions.
Turn on Developer mode (top-right switch).
Click Load unpacked and pick the eyes-on folder.
A welcome tab opens. Click Allow camera once. Then pin Eyes On from the puzzle-piece icon so you can see ON / AWAY in the toolbar.

How it works

The camera turns on only while a video is playing, and turns off a few seconds after it stops.
Look away for 1.5 seconds (you can change this) and it pauses. Blinks and quick glances don't count.
It only resumes videos it paused. If you pause something yourself, it stays paused.
Click the toolbar icon for on/off, sensitivity, the delay, a live camera preview, and turning it off for one site.

Private by design

Your face is read on your computer by a small built-in model. No video, pictures or data are sent anywhere. The extension makes no network requests at all: no analytics, no account.

Good to know

Mac: if the camera won't start, open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera, turn on Google Chrome, then restart Chrome.
Camera busy: if Zoom, Teams or FaceTime is using the camera, Eyes On can't see you. The icon shows CAM and your videos simply play normally.
Full screen works, with the "Paused" note on top. Picture-in-picture works too (it pauses), but the note doesn't show inside the small window.
Videos in a background tab are left alone. It only acts on the video you can see.
Light matters: in a very dark room the camera may lose your face and pause. Try the Relaxed setting or a lamp.
Webcam off to the side? Open the preview, look at the screen, and press I'm looking at the screen.