YouTube now highlights the “most replayed parts of a video” in a graph above the progress bar, so you can jump to the potentially most significant part of a clip without skipping every five or ten seconds. The higher the peak, the more often that section was played by other users. And if you rewind the video to the most viewed part, you’ll see a new message below the thumbnail that says “most repeated.”
YouTube has started rolling out the new feature across web and mobile, but it’s still not widely available, so don’t worry if you don’t see this new chart. Previously, only YouTube Premium subscribers could access the feature, but now the platform has decided to make it available to its other users as well.
How can YouTube’s new chart help users?
Well, if you’re like us, if you don’t know how to do something, go to YouTube and search for a tutorial, hoping you’ll find one that will teach you. But sometimes videos are too long and you only need a specific part of them. So what do you do? You start skipping parts looking for the one you need. Now, with this new feature, the next time you open a “How to” video, you’ll see the most viewed section, which can be the part where the creator explains how to do what you want to learn, and go there right away goes . until.
A potential problem for creators
With YouTube’s new charting feature, chances are users will just jump to the most intriguing part of a video and then leave, resulting in a shorter clip watch time. But if you’re creating content on YouTube, you know it’s important that viewers watch the entire video. This way, the platform’s algorithms will see that the content you produce is engaging and useful, introducing your videos to more people, leading to more views and potentially more ad revenue.
So it will be interesting to see if YouTube’s new chart will cause content creators to make less money in the future. We think we’ll figure it out eventually, once it’s generally available and everyone can choose to watch the entire video or just skip to the most intriguing part and then leave.
At the meta level, this small change could change the way creators edit videos, push them forward every minute with relevant information (or tons of jump cuts), trigger a new style overhaul, and how YouTubers do things after 2022.
A new endless loop feature and new full screen action buttons
A new chart isn’t the only feature coming to YouTube. On its community page, the video platform also announced the introduction of a “Single Loop” option, which allows you to loop a video as many times as you want. So, to repeat indefinitely, Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” on YouTube. Open the video on your iPhone or Android and tap the Settings icon in the video player. There will be a new repeat button, which will repeat the video. To repeat the song on your computer, right click on the video and press the loop button.
When you open full screen to watch a video, you will also see a new set of buttons. Now you can like, dislike the comment section, add a video to a playlist or just share the clip with a friend right from full screen mode.