YouTube has undergone significant changes in recent years, but not everything may work for everyone, as people are unique in their approach to consuming videos.
Still, I don’t judge YouTube’s evolution only in binary terms of what works and what doesn’t.
The good-bad binary is certainly important in how you evaluate a product, but I also consider how those changes influence user behavior over time before forming a conclusion.
I don’t love everything YouTube has to offer, but I acknowledge the company’s intent to change how we consume media on the platform.
Many of the company’s past efforts in that direction didn’t land well – at least I didn’t like them – but I recently came across one of YouTube’s secret features, precise seeking, and for me, it delivers on that promise.
YouTube’s precise seeking has changed how I watch videos on the platform. Here’s how.
How I watched YouTube videos before precise seeking
I was watching YouTube all wrong
YouTube’s seeking capability isn’t the same everywhere. While watching videos on YouTube’s web client, I used to move the mouse cursor forward and backward along the progress bar, and this shows a tiny preview of the frame you’re currently at.
It appears just above the progress bar, so you never lose sight of it.
The feature isn’t very different on phones, but unlike the web client, it doesn’t show you a thumbnail above the progress bar when you drag the red dot left or right.
Instead, dragging the red dot on YouTube mobile gives you a preview of the frame at that moment directly on the video player.
This was one of those YouTube features I used daily to watch my favorite moments in the video.
It came in especially handy on videos where creators didn’t break it up into different sections by adding chapters.
It wasn’t until I discovered the precise seeking feature that I realized there was a faster, smarter way of watching my favorite moments in a video.
Precise seeking changed everything
It feels like a hidden superpower
I watch YouTube to level up my skills and for entertainment purposes. Both types of content have enormous repeat value, provided that the creators have done a good job at nailing the topic.
If a piece of educational content is rich in information and is slightly on the longer side, you may not remember everything from it. It happens to me all the time with History and Math videos.
I usually watch those videos again, but only the specific portion I forgot.
Pushing the red dot in the progress bar left and right works, but displays each scene in the video so fast that you can easily scroll past that moment without realizing it.
YouTube’s precise seeking solves this problem. It requires you to swipe up the progress bar to reveal a strip of thumbnails, showing all the frames in the video.
You can scroll left or right along the strip to preview different parts of the video. When you see the frame you want, tap the play button, and YouTube will play from that specific moment.
So, no more blindly dragging the red dot and hoping to land at the right moment, as the filmstrip lets you visually locate the part you want to watch again.
I also use this feature to revisit my favorite moments in movies on YouTube. It also makes sharing specific moments easier.
All you do is locate the frame, note the timestamp (for example, 1m30s), and add it to the URL in the format “?t=1m30s” to share the exact moment.
I no longer play with the red dot when I want to rewatch a specific portion of a video on YouTube.
Your YouTube, your call
While its features can vary depending on where you live, YouTube is largely the same for everyone in terms of its appearance and offerings.
It can still feel different to each viewer because of its algorithm-based feeds, which reflect your interests. This part of YouTube is on your face, easy to notice, but features like precise seeking aren’t as visible.
It doesn’t announce itself on the screen like the way buttons and menus do, which also explains why it remains unnoticed to those who don’t know about it.
I stumbled upon it by chance while watching the highlights of the India vs. England Cricket match on YouTube.
It was only a fun trick at first, but after using it a few more times, I realized it added a new dimension to how I skip videos on the platform.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be equally handy for everyone. It depends on the videos you watch on YouTube, as some videos are better enjoyed from start to finish, no matter how often you watch them.
Precise seeking doesn’t make YouTube better for all; it simply makes the platform better for me — a stark reminder that YouTube is what you want to make of it.
