Find the most-replayed parts of any upload just by scrolling through the playback bar
We all have those YouTube videos worth watching again and again. Whether it’s a six-hour essay about your favorite obscure 90s Japanese dating sim or a 30-second viral clip of the cutest cats on the web, rewatching old content is a routine part of the site. With a bunch of new features for YouTube, users can finally get to the most replayed parts of any given video without sitting through the rest.
YouTube laid out a couple of updates coming to its video player starting today, including a graph displaying which portions of a video are rewatched the most. The graph shows up alongside the playback bar, highlighting the parts viewers have been replaying. If you skip ahead to that portion of a clip, you’ll see a small notice appear whenever you scroll by a popular moment. Replay graphs are coming to videos on desktop and mobile starting today.
It’s not the only new tool YouTube has for navigating through longer videos. The company teased a new visual playback bar that should make it easier to navigate to specific moments in a longer clip. It’ll be available soon as an experiment for Premium members to try out. That could mean months — if not years — until a broader launch arrives for normal viewers, but if you’re a paid subscriber, it’ll be another tweak to try out on your mobile device.
As always, YouTube mixed in a recap of some recent announcements, including the arrival of automated chapters and support for chapters on smart TVs and game consoles. The site recommends creators add chapters to their own videos — especially for longer content — as it increases how long viewers stick with specific uploads. YouTube also drew attention to its loop feature, which you can access from the menu on any video. It’s perfect for playing white noise at night as you gently fall asleep.
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