I Built a Chrome Extension - Sidekick

A developer built Sidekick, a Chrome extension that lets sports fans chat in real time while watching live matches. The extension detects the current sporting event using an AI model and creates a shared room for fans to interact without leaving the video. The developer plans to add moderation and richer reactions in future updates.

As a huge sports fan, I always found one thing missing while watching live matches. Sometimes I wanted to celebrate a goal, discuss a referee decision, or react with my friends—but I didn't want to switch to Discord, WhatsApp, Reddit, or X. I wanted everything to happen right beside the stream. So, I decided to build Sidekick. The Idea Sidekick is a Chrome extension that lets people watching the same sporting event join a shared room and chat in real time without leaving the video. The extension detects the current sporting event, creates or joins a room, and lets fans interact through messages and reactions. Tech Stack Some Interesting Challenges Detecting the Match The extension first collects information from the current webpage: This information is sent to an AI model which determines whether the user is watching a sporting event and extracts details such as: Avoiding Repeated AI Calls Running AI every time someone joined the room would have been wasteful. Instead, only the room creator performs match detection. The detected match is stored, and everyone else who joins receives the already-verified information. This greatly reduced API usage. Team Badges Once the match is identified, the extension fetches official team badges or country flags when appropriate so users can immediately choose which side they're supporting. What's Next? I'm planning to continue improving Sidekick by adding better moderation, richer reactions, chat synchronisation, and additional ways for fans to interact during live events. Building this project taught me a lot about Chrome extensions, real-time systems, and integrating AI into practical applications. If you've built a browser extension before, I'd love to hear about your experience or any suggestions for improving Sidekick.