Mini Player

Floating video windows for Windows, Linux and macOS - no browser needed. Paste a YouTube, TikTok, Twitch or Vimeo link (or an mp4) and watch it in a small always-on-top window with control panels that slide out beside the video instead of covering it.

English · Русский

Download the installer · Build from source · How it works

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Highlights

Mini windows	Open a link and get a compact player: YouTube (videos, Shorts, playlists), TikTok, Twitch channels, Vimeo, direct mp4/webm files, or any website.
Panels outside the window	Controls slide out above, below and beside the window on hover - never over the video. Drag the window by any panel.
Fine-grained transparency	Window, frame and video opacity are separate. Pin on top, minimize, full screen, S/M/L sizes, remembered position and size.
TikTok, decluttered	Full feed in a slim window with the extra UI removed; hide captions and author names, skip ads and LIVE, auto-scroll, fit the window to each video.
Real search	Search YouTube and TikTok right from the app: best match preview plus a grid of results with thumbnails.
Continue watching	Remembers where you stopped (YouTube and local files) and resumes from that second.
Accounts	Sign in on YouTube, TikTok or Twitch; keep up to four accounts per platform and switch between them.
History, pins, favorites	Pin or delete recent items, star favorites, clear history without losing what matters.
Keeps playing	Video and audio continue when the window is minimized.
Real installer	One Setup.exe: shortcuts, uninstaller, optional autostart, and the WebView2 runtime if it is missing.

Screenshots

Main window - continue watching, pinned and recent videos	Search - best match and results with thumbnails
TikTok - open feeds in a slim window	Settings - layout, window options, TikTok view modes

The interface language is currently Russian.

Quick start

1. Download MiniPlayer_Setup.exe from the latest release and run it (no administrator rights needed; installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Mini Player).
2. Paste a link and press Open - or press Open with an empty field to open the platform's home feed.
3. Hover the top or bottom edge of a player window to reveal the panels.

The installer is not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may warn you: click More info, then Run anyway. Silent install: MiniPlayer_Setup.exe --silent · uninstall: uninstall.exe --uninstall.

Linux and macOS

These builds use Qt WebEngine instead of WebView2 (same features, same interface).

• Linux: download the .tar.gz or the .AppImage from the releases page. For the AppImage run chmod +x MiniPlayer*.AppImage && ./MiniPlayer*.AppImage. On Wayland the app runs through XWayland.
• macOS: open the .dmg (Apple Silicon or Intel) and drag Mini Player to Applications. The app is not notarized, so on first launch right-click it and choose Open.

Linux and macOS builds are produced by the GitHub Actions workflow in .github/workflows/build.yml, or you can build them yourself (see below).

How it works

flowchart LR
    M["Main window<br/>links · search · history"] -->|open| P["Player window<br/>video only"]
    P --- T["Top panel<br/>pin · settings · minimize · fullscreen"]
    P --- B["Bottom panel<br/>TikTok feeds"]
    P --- S["Settings window<br/>opacity · size · view modes"]

Loading

The app is a native Rust program (wry + tao, Microsoft Edge WebView2) that hosts several windows. The player window shows only the video; the panels are separate frameless windows that follow it around and appear when the cursor reaches the edge. TikTok pages are cleaned with an injected script; accounts are stored as encrypted browser sessions so you can switch between them.

Build from source

pip install -r requirements.txt     # Python is used for the UI build and the installer

# build the app and the installer (needs Rust: https://rustup.rs)
.\build.ps1                 # -> dist\MiniPlayer\ (folder)  and  installer\dist\MiniPlayer_Setup.exe

Requires Windows 10/11, Rust (stable) and Python 3.12+. Without Visual Studio Build Tools the GNU toolchain with gcc (e.g. WinLibs) is used. The previous Python version is still in the repository (miniplayer.py, plat/) and is what the Linux and macOS builds use.

Linux / macOS:

pip install -r requirements-qt.txt
python build_ui.py
python miniplayer.py                 # run directly
bash scripts/build_unix.sh           # or build a bundle (tar.gz on Linux, .app on macOS)

Linux needs the usual Qt/xcb libraries (on Debian or Ubuntu: libxcb-cursor0 libxkbcommon-x11-0 libnss3). Setting MP_QT=1 also runs the Qt backend on Windows.

Project structure

Path	What it is
rs/	The app (Rust): windows, JS bridge, panels, accounts, search, bypass mode
miniplayer.py, plat/	The previous Python version (used for Linux and macOS builds)
ui_template.html	The main window (single HTML/CSS/JS file); build_ui.py embeds icons and writes ui.html
player.html	Player window page (YouTube IFrame API, Twitch chat, local files)
panel.html	Panel pages: top, bottom (TikTok feeds) and settings
tiktok_inject.js	Cleans up tiktok.com, hides ads, controls auto-scroll
icons/	Icon set (*_clay.png are the hand-drawn ones; svg/ holds the sources of the rest)
installer/installer.py	Installer and uninstaller (tkinter)
build.ps1	One-command build
docs/	Banner and screenshots

Bypass mode (Windows, optional)

Settings has a switch that helps open YouTube, Twitch and other blocked sites where they are slowed down or blocked; TikTok and Netflix are connected directly. It works only inside this app: the app runs a local proxy for its own windows and a zapret winws instance that filters only the proxy's reserved source ports (52000-52999), so other programs and browsers are not touched. The app tries several strategies and keeps the one that works on your network.

• Needs administrator rights (one Windows UAC prompt per app launch, only if the mode is on). Switching it on or off does not restart the app; while it is off, connections go out normally.
• Does not help with IP or DNS blocks, and cannot make a service available in a region where it does not operate.
• Antivirus software may flag winws.exe and the WinDivert driver; this is typical for such tools. Their sources are linked below.
• Third-party components in third_party/zapret: zapret by bol-van (MIT) and WinDivert by basil00 (LGPLv3 / GPLv2).

Privacy and data

Everything is stored locally in %APPDATA%\MiniPlayer (Linux: ~/.local/share/MiniPlayer, macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/MiniPlayer): settings and history (data.json), the embedded browser profile (web) and a crash log (crash.log). Saved sessions of multiple accounts live in accounts.bin, encrypted with Windows DPAPI - only your Windows user can decrypt it (on Linux and macOS: Fernet, with the key kept in the system keyring or a 0600 key file). Never share that file. The app talks only to the sites you open (YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, …); it has no telemetry.

Notes

• Not affiliated with YouTube, TikTok, Twitch or Vimeo; all names belong to their owners.
• Hiding TikTok interface elements, reading account names and TikTok search rely on how those sites are built and may break when they change.
• Videos whose authors disabled embedding can't be played inside the app (use Open in browser from the window settings).