Keyboard shortcuts
In the web player you can control playback from the keyboard, on any page and over the full player. Press ? to see the list in the app.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Space or K | Play or pause |
| J or ← | Skip back (by your skip-back length, 15 seconds out of the box) |
| L or → | Skip forward (by your skip-forward length, 30 seconds out of the box) |
| Shift+← / Shift+→ | Previous or next chapter |
| [ / ] | Slower or faster, by 0.05× |
| B | Add a bookmark where you are |
| P | Open the full player |
| Q | Show or hide Up next, on a server that has it (not over the full player) |
| ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K, or / | Quick search and commands (not over the full player) |
| Z | Open the sleep timer |
| Esc | Close whatever is on top: a sheet, then the full player |
| ? | Show this list |
The skip lengths follow your Settings, and the list in the app shows your own.
When they don't fire
The shortcuts stay out of the way of everything else you do with the keyboard:
- Not while you're typing in a box (search, a note, a password).
- Not over another window in the app, such as a sheet, a dialog, a menu or quick search. That window's own keys win, and Esc closes it. (The Up next sheet that Q opened is the exception: Q closes it again.)
- Space and the arrow keys are left to the control you're on when it uses them itself: Space presses a focused button or tab, and the arrows move a focused slider (on the seek bar, they skip back and forward). Space on a focused seek bar still plays and pauses.
- The playback keys need a book loaded; ?, Esc, Q and quick search work without one.
- Never with Ctrl, Alt or ⌘ held (apart from ⌘K / Ctrl+K), so your browser's own shortcuts keep working. The exception is [ and ] on keyboards where you type them with AltGr or Option (many European layouts): they still change the speed.
The mobile apps don't use these; there, use the on-screen controls, your headphone buttons, or the lock screen.