← HLS Monitor

Monitor a stream from iPad & mobile

Browsers on iPadOS and iOS can't run Chrome extensions, so HLS Monitor ships as a web page instead: the monitor page plays the stream's playlist and segments itself and measures every request. The two launchers below grab the stream URL from whatever page is currently playing it and open the monitor in one tap.

Works only on CORS-enabled streams. A web page may read another origin's responses only if that server sends Access-Control-Allow-Origin, and many streams don't. If the monitor reports a CORS error, that stream can't be measured from any browser page — that's a browser rule, not a bug. Use the Chrome extension on desktop for those; it watches the player's own traffic and needs no CORS. If you control the stream's origin, adding Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * to playlists and segments fixes it (the same header hls.js-based web players require).
Recommended on iPad & iPhone

Apple Shortcut — "Monitor HLS" in the share sheet

One tap to install. Afterwards: play a stream in Safari, tap Share → Monitor HLS, and the dashboard opens. The first run asks permission to run JavaScript on the page — allow it. Safari only: other iPad browsers can't hand a web page to Shortcuts — use the bookmarklet below in those.

Get the Shortcut

Or build it yourself (2 minutes)
  1. Open the Shortcuts app and create a new shortcut.
  2. Add the action Run JavaScript on Web Page (search "javascript") and replace its example code with the code below.
  3. Add an Open URLs action after it — set its URL to the magic variable JavaScript Result.
  4. Name it Monitor HLS. In the shortcut's info panel, enable Show in Share Sheet, and set what it Receives to Safari web pages only (if it receives URLs instead, the JavaScript action silently gets nothing).
  5. Play a stream in Safari, tap Share → Monitor HLS.
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Any browser, zero install

Bookmarklet

The same discovery code as a bookmark. Works in Safari and Chrome on iPad, and in every desktop browser.

  1. iPad/iPhone: copy the code below, bookmark any page, then edit that bookmark: rename it "Monitor HLS" and paste the code in place of the address.
  2. Desktop: drag this to your bookmarks bar: Monitor HLS
  3. On a page that's playing a stream, open the bookmark.
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Or skip the launchers

If you already have the playlist URL, just open the monitor page and paste it in.

Fine print: the launchers only see the top frame, so players embedded in cross-origin iframes are invisible to them. On desktop Chrome, the extension has neither that restriction nor the CORS requirement, and watches the page's own player.