HOW TO
Unlock YouTube's Hidden Features
YouTube
Videos, Music and Live Streams
If you can tear yourself away from YouTube’s endless array of cat clips and viral sensations, you’ll find the internet’s portal to video bliss has a number of cool features you didn’t know existed.
These features will make your next binge session more enjoyable, entertaining and engaging. You don't even have to watch a YouTube tutorial to find out how, just follow these handy tips.
Ensure a quality stream
There’s an easy way to improve the quality of your desired videos – simply tap the three dot menu icon in the upper right corner then press ‘Quality’. Here you can tweak the video quality, ramping it up to 720p, 1080p or wherever the individual video caps out.
Hide your history
We know this is the hidden feature you were really hoping to find. For all the YouTube videos you proudly share with friends there are others you’d rather people didn’t know you’ve been watching. Fortunately you can hide the embarrassing evidence, if you know where to look.
Rewind the easy way
We’ve all experienced trying to rewind a YouTube video, clumsily dragging our finger across the play bar, accidentally jumping back four minutes rather than four seconds. There is an easier way: while watching a video, double tapping the left side of the screen will instantly jump the video back 10 seconds, letting you relive that crucial moment.
Want to fast forward? Just double tap the right side of the play window to move forward 10 seconds. You can customise this skip time, too, by tapping Settings > Double-tap to seek and picking anywhere between 5 and 60 seconds.
Make YouTube work-friendly
There are some videos that it would be unwise to accidentally share with the wider office. So it’s best to remove the chance of this happening by tapping Settings > Restricted Mode and flicking the slider across to the on position. This will remove videos that have been flagged for inappropriate content.
Gotta get slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, sloooow
Whether you’re wanting to relive the impact of an #epicfail classic or make that handy tutorial video even easier to follow, slowing down a video can be a big help. It’s surprisingly easy, too.