Media controls

Press the media buttons of whatever is playing (a music app, a browser tab, a video player) and see the current track, without switching to the player.

How to use it

Type play, pause, next or skip, previous or back, or stop. Enter presses that button for the player you are listening to.

Type play (with the trailing space) or music to see the buttons together with a now playing row: title — artist, and the app.

Key on the now-playing row	Action
Enter	Play or pause
Shift+Enter	Next track
Alt+Enter	Previous track

How it reaches the player

	Windows	macOS	Linux
Buttons	The system media session (the one in the volume flyout), else the media keys	The media keys (play/pause, next, previous); stop is sent to Music or Spotify	playerctl (MPRIS)
Now playing	The system media session	Music and Spotify (through Apple events, only if they are running)	playerctl metadata

On Linux the buttons are not offered until playerctl is installed. On macOS the system's own now-playing service is private, so only Music and Spotify are asked for the track.

Options

All of these are in Settings → Tasks & media.

Setting	Default	What it does	Config section
Keyword	play	play lists the buttons and the track; "" removes the keyword	[media] keyword
Global	true	Also match pause, next track… in ordinary searches	[media] global
Now playing	true	Show the playing track (title, artist, app) as a row	[media] now_playing

To turn the plugin off, add "media" to [plugins] disabled. Volume and mute are automation tasks.

Privacy

The track is read from your media player when you search for it, never stored or sent anywhere. Set now_playing = false to turn the row off.