YouTube Tips

With around 2 billion active users, YouTube is one of the most popular and widely used online platforms in existence, and it is just as popular in SA as anywhere else, with more than 13 million South Africans viewing content on the platform.

In fact, chances are that you use YouTube yourself, and with that in mind, here are some handy tips to help make your YouTube experience smoother.

  • On mobile, swipe left to see the previous video, and right to see the next video, even in full-screen mode.
  • On mobile, double tap the left or right side of the video to rewind or fast forward in 10 second increments.
  • Turn on captions if you need to watch a video, and you don’t have headphones, or want to disturb the people near you.
  • YouTube search works the same as Google search, and understands the same operators.
    • Add quotation marks to specify a certain term.
    • Use plus or minus signs to include or exclude terms.
    • Add “channel” or “playlist” to look for channels and playlists that include your search term.
    • Add “allintitle” to search for videos which include all your search terms in the title of the video.
  • You can change the theme for YouTube to a dark theme to help reduce eye-strain.
    • On mobile, tap “Settings” -> “General” -> “Dark Theme”
    • On PC, cick on your profile, then click “Dark Theme” and “Enable Dark Theme”
  • Save videos for later by clicking “Add To” and then “Watch Later.” See saved videos by clicking on “Settings” and then “Watch Later.”
  • To share a URL of a video at a certain timestamp, right click on the video, and select “Copy URL at current time” to copy a time-stamped URL of the video.
  • Speed up and slow down videos by clicking teh gear icon on PC, or the 3 dots on mobile, and selecting “Playback Speed.”
  • On iPads and Android devices, you can get a floating video window (Picture In Picture) to display the video while you do other things on your device. Press the home button on your device to leave the browser window while still keeping the video visible and playing. If the feature is not enabled, go to the YouTube app settings, tap general, and enable the “picture-in-picture” option.
  • On PC’s, click the “Mini” button on the bottom right of the video to do the same thing, or click the “Theatre mode” button to enlarge the video without going full-screen.
  • YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts:
    • “J” rewinds by 10 seconds.
    • “L” fast-forwards 10 seconds.
    • Left & Right arrow keys rewind or fast-forward in 5 second increments.
    • “K” pauses or plays a video.
    • “M” mutes or unmutes a video.
    • Number keys increment the timeline by 10%. “2” will jump to 20% of the timeline, “9” to 90%, and “0” will restart it.