YouTube Rolls Out 'Chapters' Feature to Mark Specific Content in a Video

[MacRumors]

YouTube is rolling out a new Chapters feature across mobile and web that should make searching through a video for specific content a lot less annoying.

One of the frustrating things about YouTube is having to scrub through long videos and stopping and starting playback to find the content that interests you. Until now, users had to rely on considerate YouTubers adding a list of timestamps in their video descriptions to help viewers in their search.

But YouTube's Chapters feature aims to do away with the hassle by letting content creators embed timestamps right into the video progress bar. Now when you fast forward using the bar, a topic description appears directly below the thumbnail image, so you can quickly skip to the bit that interests you.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1266051626562990082

To add the identifying labels, creators just need to type the relevant timestamps in a video's description when they're uploading. For the feature to work, videos must have at least three chapters of 10 seconds or longer, and the first chapter has to start at 0:00.

YouTube has been experimenting with the feature for a while, so some users may have seen it already, but it's currently being rolled out globally on the platform for the first time.

Article Link: YouTube Rolls Out 'Chapters' Feature to Mark Specific Content in a Video

 

[chris4565]

That’s actually a nice new feature.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Great feature, but it would be great if they could fix the player experience on Apple TV - it's literally the worst thing I've used on the platform.

 

[willyx]

Releasing this feature without a way to precisely scrub to the beginning of each chapter, without manually dragging the progress indicator, is a total fail.

 

[tann]

This is a really great feature. I hope more content creators embrace it rather than ignore it (to ensure people view adverts / stay tuned for longer etc).

 

[Saturnine]

I’ve seen this on a few videos already over the past couple of weeks. It’s really nice and seems to work just fine.

 

[biffuz]

Nice. Now, what about the missing landscape mode when browsing (13 years should have been enough to implement it), all those invasive Premium ads and popups, and closed captions that won't stay turned off?
Especially the latest two, they're so annoying they made me no longer use my phone to watch youtube, I'm back to my notebook when I can (and as a bonus it has ad blocking).

 

[chris4565]

Great feature, but it would be great if they could fix the player experience on Apple TV - it's literally the worst thing I've used on the platform.

That's true. Navigating while playback e. g. to adjust subtitles is just not fun at all especially because so much of the image gets covered by the UI. The worst thing for me is the image quality. No matter the resolution it's just utter garbage, especially in dark scenes. I don't know if that's somehow bugged for me or normal.

 

[iBluetooth]

Great feature, but it would be great if they could fix the player experience on Apple TV - it's literally the worst thing I've used on the platform.

Second that, the AppleTV Youtube app was very good until 3 years ago, when they decided to use the Android UI look and feel so now Youtube is sometimes using ¼ of screen, playlists don't work, the control is different from other native apps, etc.

 

[lunarworks]

YouTube finally catching-up to adult-oriented streaming services.

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

Hey! This is a widely used feature by it's sister site on Redtube.
Glad it finally came though. ?

 

[Quicksilver867]

A certain black-and-orange adult website has had this feature for some time.

 

[bchery21]

I’ve seen this on a few videos already over the past couple of weeks. It’s really nice and seems to work just fine.

Yea, same here. I've seen it a few times and think it's a useful feature.

 

[The Real Joe Walker]

How about “Show associated playlists”

 

[CarlJ]

Great feature, but it would be great if they could fix the player experience on Apple TV - it's literally the worst thing I've used on the platform.

Agreed. I think it’s their generic SmartTV app. And it’s got all sorts of senseless annoyances - like, any time you pause the video, when you restart, it covers half the screen with (mostly) needlessly duplicated controls, and advertisements for other videos - I hit play TO WATCH THIS VIDEO, RIGHT NOW, WHY ARE YOU HIDING THE CURRENTLY PLAYING VIDEO BEHIND SUGGESTIONS OF OTHER VIDEOS? - and the only way to quickly dismiss this mess is to hit Menu (a misuse of the button), and if it should happen to register two presses of the button, the second takes you entirely out of the video! ARGH!

Also, there’s no way to add a video to a playlist, short of actually playing the video. So, if you happen to see 3 videos you want to remember and/or watch, somewhere like the recommended list, your choices are to watch one, and just hope the others are there when you get back - because it occasionally refreshes the list when you come back. On occasion, I have taken to snapping pictures with my phone, of something in the recommended list on the TV, Paso that I can search for it later if it goes away. Which is a ridiculous state of user experience.

And the interface is VERY fond of using the space under a thumbnail to tell me how many views a video has (who cares, other than the person who uploaded it?), and that it’s “Recommended for you”. Well guess what, with hundreds of millions of videos for them to choose from, any video they suggest is “recommended for me” by its very nature. How about giving me the date, instead? When there are several videos on a subject, or from a channel, I normally want to watch them in chronological order, because later ones may refer to earlier ones. As it is, I’m usually left to guess the proper order from hints in the titles or thumbnails, but, they’re all “Recommended for me”.

The YouTube iPad app is worlds better, and doesn’t have any of the problems mentioned above. I wish they’d port that to the AppleTV rather than sticking us with the generic SmartTV app.

 

[Saipher]

This is great! On a side note, is YouTube showing off their new feature on an iPhone? Oh the irony.

 

[flottenheimer]

Good one! Can't wait for all Youtube creators to start using this.

 

[EmotionalSnow]

A good feature but this does not work for all older videos; some creators don't put the timestamps for the chapters but rather the timestamps for the music in the description.

 

[whsbuss]

How about “Show associated playlists”

How about YouTube not removing content they don't agree with.

 

[burgman]

Great feature, but it would be great if they could fix the player experience on Apple TV - it's literally the worst thing I've used on the platform.

I don’t have issues with the player but man the remote sure sucks. On my Roku I regularly get the “YouTube is unavailable” box exit or cancel.
[automerge]1590763270[/automerge]

How about YouTube not removing content they don't agree with.

Don’t like the policies start your own company and do what you like. It’s a free country after all.

 

[VictorTango777]

This is the kind of video searching that we need

 

[jonblatho]

As someone who’s watched many a concert bootleg, this is fantastic. I stumbled upon it on one such video maybe a week ago.

 

[4487549]

Great feature, but it would be great if they could fix the player experience on Apple TV - it's literally the worst thing I've used on the platform.

Seriously. Reminds me of the 2nd worst app, Netflix, and how they make the least amount of effort to integrate with Apple TV because they're competitors. I use my phone to Airplay YouTube videos to Apple TV because it's an infinitely better UI (bonus: it counts Screen Time).

 

[macduke]

It’s noticed this a couple days ago and it’s really great for video podcasts. The sections pop out above the bar when hovering the mouse over the and tell you the topic.

Now where is PIP? I pay for Premium with no ads and I have no idea why that doesn’t include PIP but only background audio!! It drives me crazy.

 

[hagar]

Great, now go and make a decent iOS app.

One that looks like it was made for iOS instead of Android, with support for PiP, auto dark mode, a functional comment section and without that annoying pop-up ad for YT Premium.