YouTube, the popular video-sharing and social media platform is introducing a new handy fast forward and rewind feature that lets users skip chapters while playing a video with a double-tap.
According to reports, this feature will only work if the video’s description has chapters, the different sections of a YouTube video that lets users preview its name and additional information, specified by the content publisher. YouTube gained a slide-to-seek feature earlier this week that allows users to scrub through a video more easily than before.
Double-tapping on the right side of the screen with two fingers takes the user to the next chapter of the currently playing video. And if the same gesture on the left side of the screen will take back to the previous chapter. It works better if when the video is watched in the landscape than in the portrait mode.
Last year, YouTube disabled the option to tap on the progress bar to skip to any point in a video. The changes were made in response to complaints of accidental touching. Instead, it required users to tap and hold the progress bar to scrub through the video. However, the user must first tap on the screen to bring up the progress bar.
The new gesture appears to be part of a server-wide update or could be reaching users on an account-to-account basis. To activate the new feature, users must first tap and hold anywhere on the video screen, then use the same finger to slide left or right to rewind or skip the video.
The two-finger double-tap gesture is currently available for Android v16.31.35 beta users. The features are still in the roll-out phase and they will be available on your Android device with the latest update soon.
