Google has recently released another mobile update for YouTube and some users are frustrated that they, once again, need to adapt to a new layout. This change does bring with it a new opportunity, however.
YouTube has been around for almost 20 years at this point, so it’s had plenty of time to add new features and tricks that have long since been forgotten about. These tricks can really help enhance a user’s experience and whether one wants to watch silly clips or long video essays, some of them are even essential.
Set Break Reminder
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It’s really easy to get sucked into watching YouTube videos for hours and hours, losing track of time. Thankfully, YouTube includes a feature that lets users set an alarm for themselves.
This feature is found in the settings menu of YouTube, under the general tab. “Remind me to take a break” allows users to cut themselves off from viewing after a set amount of time. There is also a “Remind me when it’s bedtime” option, as well.
Video Transcripts
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The captioning feature on YouTube is perhaps the most evolved on the site. When the automatic transcripts first debuted, they were pretty poor. After years of work, though, the auto captioning is a lot more accurate. Plenty of users prefer to add their own captioning in multiple languages, though.
Instead of viewing these as closed captioning, it’s also possible to view them in transcript form. By clicking the three dots beside any YouTube video’s options, users can open a transcript. This displays the video’s script with helpful timestamps to allow users to keep up.
Clip
Clips are one of the newer features introduced to YouTube, and undoubtedly come from its most famous streaming competitor, Twitch. This allows users to share parts of a video, rather than the entire thing. Given that YouTube videos can get pretty long these days, that is pretty useful.
To create a clip, click on the button next to the share button. This will open a tiny video editor that allows the user to clip between five seconds to a minute of footage. Notably, this clip still directs people to the original video. This is good for creators, as this means view to the clip go to the video.
Automatic Fullscreen
While some may prefer theater mode, most people prefer to watch YouTube in fullscreen mode. This is especially true on mobile, where it may be hard to tell what’s happening on the screen. Manually clicking the fullscreen button can be a chore, so it’s a good thing YouTube offers a solution.
In the setting menu accessed by clicking on one’s user icon, the Playback tab can be found. The toggle to “always play HD fullscreen” can be found here. It is worth mentioning that not all videos will look good fullscreen, but it’s still preferable on mobile.
Linking Accounts
In the modern age, most websites can exchange information through each other. Google accounts often automatically link up to YouTube, after all. That being said, way more websites can be linked to YouTube than one would expect.
Most social media accounts can be linked to a YouTube channel, which obviously is for brand outreach reasons. More bizarre is the ability to link accounts like Discord and Steam. This is mainly used for YoujTube’s membership programs, which allow certain users benefits through linking.
Pause, Rewind, & Fast-Forward Shortcuts
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These basic commands are the backbone of watching television, but they’re a little more obscure on YouTube. On mobile devices one might have activated them by accident. Tapping the screen pauses the video and double tapping on the right and left sides fast-forwards and rewinds respectively.
What’s more surprising is the keyboard commands for these features. Space is used for pause, with the left and right arrow keys rewinding and skipping forward. Most obscure of all if the ability to change the skip lengths in YouTube options. This works for mobile and keyboard commands.
Manipulate History
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Watch and search history can be very personal, so it’s a good idea to be able to access it. While one can view their watch history from the “Watched” tab, to access more features they’ll need to go to the “myactivity” tab on their channel’s Google account. This account controls both search and watch history for YouTube.
Here, both search and watch history can be deleted. Not only that, it can also be paused. This causes it to be temporarily frozen for when users need to lend their account to another. It’s a little cumbersome to do, but there’s a utility for it.
360 Videos
While plenty of video games need mods for VR support, YouTube has it built in. Watching YouTube videos in a virtual space is actually an easily accessible feature of most VR headsets. What a lot of people don’t know is that there are videos with full VR support, as well.
360 videos take time and effort to shoot, so there aren’t a lot of them. However, they do exist and comprise some of the most exciting yet unknown corners of YouTube. They can be distinguished from regular videos in non-VR by a button in the upper left. They’re definitely something audiences shouldn’t miss out on.
Dark Mode
Most commonly used websites offer some kind of dark mode. While websites traditionally had white backgrounds, when eye strain became an issue most of them offered darker backgrounds to reduce it. Despite being one of the most popular websites, YouTube doesn’t seem to have an obvious dark mode.
It does exist, though, and can be found in the clicking on one’s profile picture. This allows one to change the appearance of the website with the well-named “Appearance” tab. On mobile the dark mode can be instead found in the settings, which has its own “Appearance” tab in general options. This should greatly reduce glare and eye strain.
Frame By Frame
This feature is wonderful for editors and film buffs and is another keyboard shortcut, but much less well known than the skipping through the episode. This feature also only works when the video is paused, which adds to its obscurity.
Hitting the comma key moves the video backward precisely one frame. Hitting the period key moves it one frame in the other direction. With these two combined, one can get a controlled picture of the movement of a video with even more control than the playback speed options. While its uses are limited for the average Joe, everyone has access to it, and everyone should know about it.
