What it is
Scrolling short-form video is a one-thumb job - until your hands are busy, greasy, or just far from the phone-sized trackpad. Air Swipe turns your webcam into a remote: point at the screen and the reel moves. It's a Manifest V3 Chrome extension that watches your hand through MediaPipe's HandLandmarker and translates gestures into player actions on instagram.com/reels and youtube.com/shorts.
The gestures
-
Index finger point up ☝️
Next reel/short. Hold 0.4s to trigger - keep holding and it repeats every second, so you can channel-surf with one finger in the air.
-
Peace sign ✌️
Previous reel/short. Hold 0.5s.
-
Thumbs up 👍
Toggle like. Hold 1.5s - deliberately longer, because an accidental like is worse than an accidental scroll.
-
Open palm ✋
Pause / resume. Hold 0.7s.
-
Three fingers 🤘
Mute / unmute (index + middle + ring). Hold 0.7s.
After each action fires, feedback flashes in the camera preview (⬆️ ⬇️ ❤️ ⏸️), and a ghost trail follows your index fingertip so you always know what the tracker sees.
How to install
- Grab the code from GitHub and unzip it.
- Open chrome://extensions in Chrome or Edge.
- Enable Developer mode (toggle, top right).
- Click Load unpacked and select the Air Swipe folder. Done - no build step, no accounts.
How to use
- Go to instagram.com/reels or youtube.com/shorts.
- Click the 👋 Hands-Free floating button (bottom-right) - or the extension's toolbar icon.
- Allow camera access on first use. It's a one-time grant to the extension itself, not to Instagram or YouTube.
- A camera preview appears top-right - gesture away.
- Click the button again to turn it off. The camera stops immediately.