Ambient Light

Free Chrome extension

Ambient Light for Social Feeds A soft ambient glow for TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Threads

Ambient Light adds a soft, colorful glow behind the photos and videos in your feed on the desktop web versions of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Threads. Each post tints the page with its own colors, and the light flows smoothly from one post to the next, like an ambient mode for your social feeds.

Coming soon to the Chrome Web Store

This page will link to the store listing as soon as it is live.

Free · No account · No data collection

Ambient Light on a dark demo feed: a desert photo, then an autumn forest and a flower meadow side by side, spread a soft orange and pink glow into the page around them

An ambient glow that follows your feed

Colors from every photo and video

Each photo and video spreads its own colors into the page around it. The glow is drawn behind the page, so posts, menus and dialogs stay crisp and untinted.

Smooth blending between posts

When two posts in a row both have media, the color flows from the bottom of one to the top of the next. After a text-only post, the light simply fades.

Follows videos as they play

On videos the glow changes with the picture, with frame blending to keep it smooth and an FPS cap to keep it light.

Full-screen viewers glow too

Open a photo or reel from the Facebook feed, an Instagram post or a Threads photo, and the light moves into the backdrop around it. Side panels keep their normal background.

Easy to read

Readability modes keep text clear: a frosted feed column (the default), a veil with a halo around media, a text outline, or a softer look on light themes. Side menus can be frosted, see-through or left solid.

Dark and light themes

Works on dark and light themes. On light pages the glow shows as soft pastel tints, or you can keep it to dark themes only.

Tune it your way

Adjust strength, spread, blur, saturation, brightness and card see-through, let the colors fill the whole screen width, and pick a quality preset: Battery saver, Balanced or Sharp. Every change applies instantly.

Per site and per page type

Switch it on or off for each site, and separately for feeds, reels and full-screen viewers. It turns itself off on direct-message pages.

Built to stay light

The glow is drawn on a tiny canvas and scaled up by the GPU, and background work goes idle when the page stops changing.

Ambient Light on a demo feed

Screenshots from a demo feed with made-up posts, at the default settings.

Side-by-side comparison on a demo feed: without the extension the page is plain dark grey; with it, mountain and lagoon photos glow blue and teal and the colors blend between the two posts
Off vs. on: colors blend from post to post
A vertical video feed where an aurora video casts a green and teal glow across the dark page
Works with vertical video feeds
A light-theme demo feed where ocean and wildflower photos tint the white page with pastel blue and pink
Also on light themes
The extension settings popup next to a demo feed, with sliders for strength, spread, blur, saturation and brightness and switches for post blending, full width and light themes
Tune it your way, toggle it with Alt+Shift+A

How it works

  1. Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store once it is published.
  2. Open or reload TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or Threads in Chrome on your computer.
  3. Scroll your feed. The glow appears behind the photos and videos.
  4. Click the extension icon to adjust the look. Changes apply instantly, no reload needed.
  5. Press Alt+Shift+A (Option+Shift+A on Mac) to switch the effect on or off everywhere. You can change the shortcut at chrome://extensions/shortcuts.

Under the hood

A small, low-resolution canvas sits behind the whole page. The extension makes the page’s own background see-through, paints the same background color back underneath, and adds light built from 48-pixel thumbnails of the photos and videos on screen, blurred once and scaled up by the GPU. It never reads pixel values, saves nothing and sends nothing over the network.

Supported sites

It runs on the desktop web versions of these sites in Google Chrome on your computer. It does not change the mobile apps and does not run on any other website.

It switches itself off on direct-message pages: TikTok and Threads messages, Messenger on Facebook, and Instagram Direct.

TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Threads are trademarks of their respective owners. Ambient Light for Social Feeds is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by TikTok or Meta.

Privacy: the extension keeps your data on your device

  • No account, no analytics, no ads, no tracking.
  • No network requests. All code ships inside the extension, and everything is drawn locally in your browser.
  • Page content is never saved or sent anywhere. The extension does not read the text of posts, comments or messages.
  • Only your settings are stored, in Chrome’s local extension storage on your device.
  • Permissions: storage to save your settings, and access to the supported sites to draw the effect.

Read the full privacy policy

Frequently asked questions

What is ambient light for social media feeds?

It is a soft glow in the colors of the photo or video you are looking at, spread into the page around it, much like the ambient mode of a video player or the bias lighting behind some TVs. Ambient Light for Social Feeds brings that effect to TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Threads in Chrome.

Which sites does it work on?

The desktop web versions of TikTok (www.tiktok.com), Instagram (www.instagram.com), Facebook (www.facebook.com and web.facebook.com) and Threads (www.threads.com), in Google Chrome. It does not run on other websites or in the mobile apps.

Is it free?

Yes. It is free, with no account and no ads.

Where can I install it?

It is coming soon to the Chrome Web Store. This page will link to the listing as soon as it is published.

Does it collect or send my data?

No. It makes no network requests and has no analytics or tracking. Photos and videos are processed only in memory on the page you are viewing, and only your settings are stored, locally in Chrome.

Will it slow down my browser?

It is built to stay light: the glow is drawn on a tiny canvas and scaled up by the GPU, video updates are capped (30 FPS by default) and the Battery saver quality preset lowers the cost further. You can also turn it off per site.

Does it work in light mode?

Yes. On light themes the glow appears as soft pastel tints. If you prefer the effect on dark themes only, turn off “Also on light theme” in the settings.

Why do some videos or images have no glow?

DRM-protected videos look black to the browser, so they add no color. Small images such as avatars and icons are skipped on purpose, and the effect switches itself off on direct-message pages.

How do I turn it on or off quickly?

Press Alt+Shift+A (Option+Shift+A on Mac). You can change the shortcut at chrome://extensions/shortcuts, or switch single sites and page types on or off from the extension icon.

Is it available in Vietnamese?

Yes. The settings popup comes in English and Vietnamese and follows your Chrome language.