Everything about CleanShare

There is no reliable way for a browser to recognise a spoken word from audio. CleanShare reads the subtitle track instead — the only written record of what is said and when. When a filtered word appears in the subtitles, the audio is muted for that moment. It works on any site with an HTML5 player and subtitles, YouTube included.

That one idea sets the honest boundaries too: no subtitles means no filtering, and the filter can only be as accurate as the subtitle file it reads. Everything else in this guide follows from that.

Just the word (the default): a short mute aimed at the word itself. Subtitle files only record when a whole line starts and ends, so the word’s exact moment inside the line is estimated — usually right, occasionally a beat early or late.

The whole line: the entire subtitle line goes quiet whenever it contains a filtered word. Nothing is estimated, so nothing is ever missed — at the cost of the sentence around the word. Switch between the two any time in the on-video panel (Ctrl Alt S → Silence).

1. Download the Chrome & Edge build and unzip it.
2. Open chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions).
3. Turn on Developer mode — top-right in Chrome, bottom-left in Edge.
4. Click Load unpacked and choose the unzipped folder.
5. Pin it: click the puzzle-piece button beside the address bar, find CleanShare, and click the pin (Chrome) or Show in toolbar (Edge). This is what puts the settings button where you can reach it.
6. Open the site you watch on, click the CleanShare icon, and enable it for that site.

1. Download the Safari build, unzip it, and move CleanShare into your Applications folder.
2. Right-click it and choose Open, then confirm. The app is not notarised by Apple, so a plain double-click is refused. You only do this once.
3. In Safari: Settings → Advanced → turn on Show features for web developers.
4. In the Develop menu, allow unsigned extensions. Where that lives depends on your Safari: on newer versions it is Develop → Developer Settings… → tick Allow unsigned extensions (your Mac password confirms it); on older versions it is a direct Develop → Allow Unsigned Extensions menu line.
5. Settings → Extensions → tick CleanShare, and allow it on the sites you watch on.

1. Pick a strictness. Click the toolbar icon: Light (only the hard stuff), Family (everything most families mean by “no swearing” — the default), or Strict (adds substitute oaths and insults). Every category can also be toggled individually.
2. Mute or skip. Choose whether a filtered word is silenced in place or jumped past entirely.
3. Start a video. The popup shows what the extension sees: how many subtitle lines it has read and how many spots it will filter. If it says “No subtitle file yet”, press Load subtitle track now — players often only fetch subtitles once captions have been switched on once.

When a filtered word comes up, the audio dips and a small mute label appears in the corner of the video. That label is also a button: if the mute was a mistake — subtitle files sometimes mis-hear a clean word as a bad one — tap it and the sound returns instantly, and that exact spot is remembered as clean for that title, forever.

The popup’s Filtered this session list shows everything acted on, with the word and timestamp, so you can always see exactly what happened and when.

Why: somebody has to sit through each film and mark its scenes. An account means your family and small group share that work — one person marks a film once, and everyone they know gets the scenes with their name on them: “Dave screened this.”

1. Create a free account — a display name, an email for verification, a password.
2. Sign in from the extension popup with your email and password — once per browser. From then on your scene marks back up to your account automatically, privately, and are restored on any browser you sign into.
3. Create a group, or join one with an invite link. Names are only ever shown inside your groups — strangers see shared lists anonymously.
4. When you publish a list you choose who sees it: everyone, or my groups only.

Your first published list is read by a human before it appears; after that, yours go live immediately. Accounts can be deleted from the account page, and deleting one removes its lists.

Subtitle files are transcriptions, and transcriptions make mistakes in both directions. CleanShare gives you a one-keystroke fix for each:

• It muted a clean word (the transcript mis-heard): press U or tap the mute label. Sound returns instantly and that spot never mutes again on this title.
• It missed a bad word (the transcript left it out): press M as it starts and M as it ends. That range is muted on every future viewing.
• A clean word is muted everywhere (you disagree with a list entry): add it to Never filter these in the popup — exceptions always win.
• A word you want filtered isn’t in our lists: add it to Your own words. Phrases work too.

Corrections are per-title where they should be and global where they should be — and if you publish your scenes, your group inherits your fixes.

• No subtitles, no filtering. Nothing to read means nothing to act on.
• The filter is as good as the transcript. Fan-made subtitles mis-hear, skip, and paraphrase. U and M exist for exactly this.
• Word-level timing is an estimate. Subtitle files time lines, not words. Perfect word timing exists only where captions carry per-word stamps (YouTube) or where a human marked the scene — which is what scene sharing is for.
• Words are matched, not meaning. A reverent use and a curse spell the same; both are filtered. Exceptions are one click away.
• It cannot see the picture. Explicit scenes are only skipped once someone marks them — then never again, for you and your groups.

• Filtering is entirely local. Your wordlists, settings and scene marks live in your browser and are never sent anywhere on their own.
• Shared-scene lookups send only the video’s address, with no identity attached. Turn Offer scene lists off and nothing is sent at all.
• Publishing is always a deliberate press, under your display name, shown only to your groups — never to strangers, who see lists anonymously.
• Accounts hold a display name, an email (verification and password reset only) and your lists. Delete your account any time from your account page.