GridPlay

Play one YouTube video in a grid of many looping tiles at once — a video-wall on your screen.

🌐 Try it live: gridplayy.vercel.app

You choose the layout (rows × columns), the size of each tile, which tile has sound, and how the tiles start. Only one tile plays audio at a time, and every tile loops forever.

There are two versions:

Version	Runs on	Best for
Native app (GridPlay.app)	macOS 14+	Mac users who want a real double-clickable app
Browser version (web/gridplay.html)	Windows, macOS, Linux — any modern browser	Everyone else, incl. Windows users

ℹ️ The native app is built with Apple's SwiftUI/AppKit and therefore cannot run on Windows. Windows (and Linux) users should use the browser version below — it has the same features.

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Screenshots

Setup screen	Grid playing

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Features

• Paste a YouTube link, pick rows × columns and the pixel size of each tile.
• Every tile plays the same video, looping forever.
• One tile has sound; click any tile's 🔈 speaker to move the audio there, or click the sounded tile again to silence everything.
• Mute All and Pause All / Play All buttons.
• Start modes:
  • Together – all tiles start at once.
  • Cascade – tiles start one after another, N seconds apart.
  • Random – the sounded tile starts from the beginning; the others start from a random point.
• Duplicate / New Window – open the same wall again in another window (stack several 3×3 walls).
• Saved Packages – save a link + all its settings as a named package and reopen it with one click.
• Swap the video while playing – paste a new link in the top bar and hit Update; the layout and every setting stay put, only the video changes.
• No subtitles – captions are kept off for a clean picture.
• Auto-open from YouTube – install the browser extension and every YouTube video you open launches the GridPlay macOS app as a wall with your default settings. Switching to another video updates the open grid in place (same layout) instead of opening a new window. Toggle it off anytime to watch YouTube normally.

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Option A — Windows / macOS / Linux (browser version)

No installation. Works everywhere.

1. Download the file web/gridplay.html.
2. Double-click it — it opens in your default browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari…).
3. Paste a YouTube link, set up your grid, and press Start.

• Duplicate / New Window open new browser windows.
• Saved Packages are stored in that browser (via localStorage) and stay between sessions.

If a tile shows "Video unavailable" when opened directly: some browsers restrict YouTube embeds loaded from a local file (file://). Fix it by serving the file over a tiny local web server instead:

# from the folder that contains gridplay.html
python3 -m http.server 8000      # macOS / Linux
py -m http.server 8000           # Windows (Python installed)

Then open http://localhost:8000/gridplay.html in your browser.

Open straight into a grid via URL

The web app also accepts query params, so a single link opens directly into a playing grid (no setup screen):

https://gridplayy.vercel.app/?v=VIDEO_ID&rows=3&cols=3&w=470&h=250&mode=random

Param	Meaning	Default
v (or url)	YouTube video id or full link	— (required)
rows, cols	grid size (1–10)	3, 3
w, h	tile width/height in px	480, 270
mode	together, cascade, or random	together
snd	which tile has sound (1-based)	1
delay	seconds between tiles (cascade only)	1

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Option A′ — Auto-open from YouTube (browser extension)

Want any YouTube video you watch to open in the GridPlay macOS app automatically? Install the GridPlay for YouTube extension (Chrome / Edge / Brave / Firefox).

1. Build & install the app once so macOS registers its gridplay:// link:

   ./build-macos-app.sh
   cp -R GridPlay.app /Applications/    # macOS binds the scheme to the copy in /Applications
   open /Applications/GridPlay.app      # launch once so Launch Services records the handler

2. Open chrome://extensions, enable Developer mode, click Load unpacked, pick the extension/ folder.
3. Open any YouTube video — GridPlay.app launches a wall with your defaults (3×3, 470×250, Random out of the box). The first time, the browser asks “Open GridPlay?” — tick Always allow.
4. Switch to another video and the same grid updates in place (all tiles reload the new video) — it doesn't pile up new windows.
5. Click the toolbar icon to change the defaults, pause the YouTube tab, or turn auto-open off.

How it hangs together: the extension's content script reads the video on YouTube and asks its background worker to open gridplay://open?v=…&rows=…&cols=…&w=…&h=…&mode=…. The app parses that in configFromDeepLink() and routes it to the open window via DeepLinkRouter.

Rebuilt the app? Re-copy it to /Applications and refresh Launch Services, otherwise the old copy still answers the link:

rm -rf /Applications/GridPlay.app && cp -R GridPlay.app /Applications/
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -f /Applications/GridPlay.app

Prefer the browser web app instead of the native app? Use the query-param URL above directly, or repoint the extension's content script — see extension/README.md.

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Option B — macOS app

Easiest: download a prebuilt app

Download GridPlay.dmg (or a shared GridPlay.zip), open it, and drag GridPlay.app into your Applications folder.

Because the app isn't notarized with a paid Apple Developer account, macOS Gatekeeper blocks the first launch with "Apple could not verify GridPlay is free of malware." This is expected for any un-notarized app. To open it, either:

• System Settings → Privacy & Security → scroll down → click Open Anyway (on macOS 15 Sequoia and later this is the only GUI route — the old "right-click → Open" no longer works), or
• run once in Terminal:

  xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/GridPlay.app

To remove the warning entirely for everyone who downloads it, the app would need to be signed and notarized with a paid Apple Developer account ($99/yr).

Build it yourself

Requires Xcode / Swift toolchain (Swift 5.9+) on macOS 14+.

git clone <this-repo>        # or download & unzip the source
cd gridplay
./build-macos-app.sh         # produces ./GridPlay.app

Then double-click GridPlay.app, or drag it to /Applications. To share it with another Mac user, make a drag-to-Applications disk image or a zip:

./make-dmg.sh                 # produces GridPlay.dmg
# or:
zip -r GridPlay.zip GridPlay.app

Run without packaging (for development)

swift run

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How to use

1. Paste a YouTube link (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=…, a youtu.be/…, or a Shorts link).
2. Layout – set rows, columns, and each tile's width/height in pixels.
3. Audio – choose which tile starts with sound.
4. Start – choose Together, Cascade (+ delay), or Random.
5. Press Start.

In the grid:

Action	How
Move the sound to a tile	Click that tile's 🔈 speaker
Silence everything	Click the sounded tile's speaker, or Mute All (⌘M)
Pause / resume all tiles	Pause All / Play All (⌘P)
Change the video (keep all settings)	Paste a link in the top bar → Update
Open the same wall again	Duplicate (⌘D)
Open a fresh setup	New Window (⌘N)
Go back to setup	← Back

Save a setup as a package: type a name in Saved Packages → Save current. Reopen it later with the ▶ button, load it into the form with ↗, rename it by clicking its name, or remove it with 🗑.

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Notes & limits

• Each tile is a live YouTube player. Two 3×3 windows = 18 simultaneous streams — that's heavy on CPU/GPU and network. If it gets sluggish, use fewer/smaller tiles.
• Videos whose owners disable embedding cannot be played (a YouTube restriction, not a bug).
• Uses YouTube's official IFrame Player API, in line with YouTube's Terms of Service.
• An internet connection is required.

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Project layout

gridplay/
├── Package.swift                 # Swift package (macOS app)
├── build-macos-app.sh            # builds GridPlay.app (bundles the icon)
├── make-dmg.sh                   # builds GridPlay.dmg (drag-to-Applications)
├── make-icon.swift               # draws the app icon (1024px master)
├── make-icon.sh                  # generates Resources/AppIcon.icns
├── Resources/
│   ├── AppIcon.icns              # macOS app icon
│   └── icon-1024.png             # icon master (PNG, also shown in this README)
├── screenshots/                  # start.png & grid.png (shown in this README)
├── Sources/GridPlay/             # native macOS app source
│   ├── GridPlayApp.swift
│   ├── ContentView.swift         # setup screen + windows + packages
│   ├── GridPlayerView.swift      # the tile grid + controls
│   ├── YouTubePlayerView.swift   # one YouTube player (WKWebView)
│   ├── GridConfig.swift          # settings model + start modes
│   ├── PresetStore.swift         # saved packages (on disk)
│   └── YouTubeID.swift           # link → video-ID parser
├── web/
│   ├── gridplay.html             # cross-platform browser version (Windows/Mac/Linux)
│   └── favicon.svg               # browser tab icon (also embedded in the HTML)
├── extension/                    # "GridPlay for YouTube" browser extension (MV3)
│   ├── manifest.json
│   ├── background.js             # auto-redirects YouTube videos → GridPlay wall
│   ├── popup.html / popup.js     # on/off toggle + default grid settings
│   └── icons/
└── site/                         # landing page deployed to Vercel (static)
    ├── index.html                # the landing page
    ├── gridplay.html             # the web app (Launch button target)
    ├── GridPlay.dmg              # macOS download
    └── icon.png, start.png, grid.png

Changing the icon

The icon is drawn in code. Edit make-icon.swift, then regenerate:

./make-icon.sh          # rewrites Resources/AppIcon.icns and icon-1024.png
./build-macos-app.sh    # rebuild the app so it picks up the new icon

If Finder still shows the old icon after rebuilding, it's just the macOS icon cache. Move the app or log out/in, or run: touch GridPlay.app.