10 Life Hacks Every YouTuber Should Know

Despite all the platform’s shortcomings, YouTube’s video player functionality is undoubtedly one of the best on the internet. It reliably plays videos on virtually any device imaginable, with the ability to choose playback quality and speed. But it’s the many hidden features and interface tricks that make it the best for me. (Other video players, take note.) Here are 10 of my favorite life hacks that make YouTube easier to use.

Find YouTube video transcripts using Ctrl-F

Almost every YouTube video has either an official or automatically generated subtitle track. While these are primarily used for creating subtitles, you can also open this track online and use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-F (or Cmd-F on a Mac) to find keywords in the video and jump directly to the desired section.

This feature has been around for a while, but YouTube changes the way you find the transcript from time to time. At the time of writing, the most reliable way to find it is to open the video description, scroll down, and click “Show Transcript” to open it in the sidebar.

Set a sleep timer for long videos.

Four-hour video essays and ASMR streams can be great background noise to help you fall asleep. However, if you want to avoid waking up abruptly tothat one loud joke you forgot about , you can set a sleep timer that will pause any video after a certain amount of time.

On the website or mobile device, tap the “Settings” icon next to any video and select “Sleep Timer” (on mobile, it may be under “Settings” > “Advanced “). You can choose a timer from 10 to 60 minutes. You can also set it to pause automatically after the current video ends, which is useful if you usually have autoplay enabled.

Link to specific timestamps in the video.

One of YouTube’s most convenient features is the ability to create direct links to a specific time in any video, as I did in the previous section. There are several ways to get a precise time-stamped link. On the web, you can right-click the video and select “Copy video URL at current time.” And on mobile, by tapping the “Share” icon, you can click the toggle next to the timestamp to add a precise link.

If none of these options work, you can even create your own timestamped link. Add ” &t=01h05m47s ” to the end of any video URL, replacing the numbers with the specific time you want to link to. You can use any combination of hours, minutes, and seconds to specify the desired moment in the video.

Use the arrow keys or double-tap to navigate quickly.

Most modern video players have a “Wait, what did they just say?” button that allows you to rewind or fast-forward a video by 5-10 seconds. YouTube has several such buttons. The simplest on mobile devices is a double-tap. Double-tap the left side of the screen to rewind the video by 10 seconds, and the right side to fast-forward. Continue tapping to fast-forward or fast-forward in 10-second increments.

In the web version, you have even more precise control. You can use the left and right arrow keys to move forward and back by 5 seconds. Alternatively, you can use the JKL keys to move in 10-second increments (with the K key used to pause the video). This last method is borrowed from video editors, making it a handy way to maintain muscle memory if you do a lot of editing.

Move frame by frame using keyboard shortcuts.

YouTubers love to place entire blocks of text in a single frame of a video , requiring you to pause to read them. On mobile devices, the only way to read such text—or to see a specific frame—is to go back and try to time the pause perfectly. However, on the web, there’s a more convenient way. While the video is paused, you can press the , (comma) or . (period) keys to move back or forward exactly one frame at a time. You can also hold these keys to slowly move between frames.

Fast forward by holding down the mouse button.

By now, it’s common knowledge that YouTube videos can be played at 2x speed (or faster), but what if you only want to quickly skim a small portion of the video, like a commercial? YouTube’s mobile version offers a handy gesture that allows you to do this without changing the default playback speed.

Simply tap and hold anywhere on the video while it’s playing. This will temporarily play the video at 2x speed until you release your finger. However, if you’re already watching a video at 2x speed or higher, it won’t play faster (or slower) than your current speed.

Set the default video quality.

YouTube generally does a pretty good job of automatically detecting video quality, balancing quality with bandwidth requirements. You can manually adjust this for each video individually, but on mobile devices, you have several additional options for greater control.

In the YouTube mobile app, go to Settings > Quality . Here you can set separate default quality settings for videos streaming over mobile data or Wi-Fi, as well as audio quality. The latter is especially useful if you use YouTube to listen to music or podcasts. If you have a consistently fast Wi-Fi connection, it’s worth setting a higher default quality instead of manually changing the resolution of each video whenever you notice a drop in quality.

Use incognito mode to save your suggestions.

YouTube can be overly persistent in showing you videos that are even remotely similar to ones you’ve watched before. If you don’t want to see a feed full of videos on how to fix a door, you can use incognito mode to view content without adding it to the algorithm’s search history. This is a bit more difficult on mobile devices, but fortunately, the YouTube app has this option.

In the YouTube mobile app, go to the “You” tab. At the top of the screen, tap “Turn on Incognito Mode.” This will allow you to search and view content without algorithmic recommendations or history recording. You can disable Incognito Mode manually, or it will automatically turn off after 90 minutes of inactivity. Please note that if you have a YouTube Premium subscription, your benefits will not apply while browsing in Incognito Mode.

Remove unnecessary videos from your viewing history.

If you forgot to enable incognito mode, you can still remove videos from your viewing history to prevent them from interfering with your recommendations. To do this, go to your YouTube viewing history on your mobile device or web version, tap the three-dot menu next to the desired video, and select ” Remove from viewing history.”

This is usually enough to prevent the video from becoming another algorithm obsession, but it also means you’ll no longer be able to find it in your story. If you want to leave any direct feedback, such as a dislike or a report, be sure to do so first. Otherwise, if you access the video again, it will be added to your story.

Master even more keyboard shortcuts.

Beyond basic navigation, YouTube’s web version offers a variety of useful keyboard shortcuts you might never have encountered, but are worth knowing about. Some of them are quite specific, but you never know when they might come in handy:

• Up and Down Arrows: Allows you to increase or decrease the video volume in 5% increments.

• Shift+> and Shift+<:> speed up or slow down the current video playback speed.

• M: Mute the current video.

• F: Enter/exit full screen mode.

• T: Enter/Exit Theater Mode

• Shift+N: Play the next video in the queue or playlist.

• Shift+P: Play the previous video from the queue or playlist.

• Ctrl/Cmd + Left or Right Arrow: Jump to the next or previous chapter of a video.

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