Hidden ‘experimental hold’ YouTube button gives the app huge ‘speed’ upgrade in a second
A HIDDEN YouTube trick can give you a clever upgrade in seconds.
Google is testing a new gesture that lets you quickly play videos at 2x speed.
It means you’ll be able to easily race through videos that don’t rely on normal pacing.
You’ll be able to easily absorb YouTube videos twice as quickly, allowing you to watch more clips than ever before.
It’s also handy to skip to particular parts of a video without “jumping” through the clip.
The feature was discovered by 9to5Google, which revealed that the feature is now in testing on live versions of YouTube.
Of course, it’s already possible to change YouTube playback speed.
But it takes a tiresome four taps to get the job done.
That’s ironic given that the feature is all about letting you watch videos faster.
So with the “Long press to watch at 2x” feature, you’ll be able to instantly switch to faster playback.
How to long-press for faster YouTube videos
First, make sure that you’ve got the latest version of the YouTube app installed.
Then you’ll need to be a YouTube Premium subscriber.
If you don’t have an active membership, the feature won’t work for you.
You can go to this link to enable it – here.
Once you’re set up, simply long press on the clip you’re watching.
“Long press anywhere on the player while watching a video to automatically bump the playback speed to 2x,” Google explained.
This will work using your finger on iPhone or Android, or using a mouse cursor on a laptop or desktop computer.
The feature is available to test until August 13.
After that time, it’s possible that the feature may make it into the live version of YouTube for all users.