Scrubber
A draggable indicator on a timeline that lets the user move through time-based media.
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Intro
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Scrubbers appear in video and audio players. The user drags the handle along the track to seek to a point in the media. Tapping a position usually jumps to it. Larger scrubbers (full-width video players) often show frame previews on hover; compact ones (audio players) usually don't.
Also called
seek barplayheadtimeline slider
When to use
- Video and audio playback controls
- Any time-based media where users want to jump to a point
- Long-form recordings where the duration shows the value of seeking
When not to use
- Static content with no timeline
- Very short media where there's nothing meaningful to scrub through
Related
Source
Media player vernacular; the term comes from physically 'scrubbing' through audio or film tape. ARIA accessibility role: `slider`.