Google Chromeis chock-full of features these days, with some of them becoming increasingly specific. For example, you’re able to easily copy individual frames from YouTube videos via the right-click menu. Google is now working on expanding this functionality with the option to save video frames, skipping a few steps compared to the old method.
When you right click a YouTube video player twice (to bypass YouTube’s own right-click menu), you might see a newSave video frame as …option along with the familiarCopy video frame,as spotted byChrome expert @Leopeva64 on X (formerly Twitter). Google is making clear that the option is a recent addition with a colorful “New” label next to it. This is similar to how Chrome highlights its redesigned password manager in the overflow menu for some users.
While you were already able to download video frames using theCopy video frameoption, there were some extra steps required to save the image to your computer. On macOS, you first have to paste it in an editor of your choice to save it to your files. With the new save option, this tedious extra step is a thing of the past. The Chrome expert further says that the video frame is saved at the same resolution as selected in the video player.
It’s not quite clear when theSave video frame as …feature will roll out widely. @Leopeva64 explains that so far, they have only seen the new option on Chrome Canary 120. It’s possible that the rollout is tied to some server-side change involving YouTube since there is also no user-facing flag that controls the frame saving and copying options.
In the meantime, there is a plethora of more-or-less trustworthy extensions available that can replicate the behavior. It’s also possible to use a third-party tool to download the video in question and export a frame via a local tool.
