YouTube Adds 'Most Replayed' Feature for Identifying Most Popular Parts of Videos

[MacRumors]

YouTube has added a new playback feature to its web player and mobile apps that helps users identify the most replayed parts of a video they're watching (via TechCrunch).

Going forward, a gray graph will appear along the top of the video progress bar. "If the graph is high, then that part of the video has been replayed often," says YouTube. "You can use the graph to quickly find and watch those moments."

The feature is being pitched as particularly beneficial for longer videos or those that haven't been broken down into sections using timestamps or chapters, allowing users to scrub through any YouTube video to find the most interesting parts.

Previously the feature was as an experiment that only YouTube Premium subscribers could access, but it's now available to anyone who uses YouTube from a browser or the company's official iOS and Android apps.

The video thumbnail also indicates the "Most replayed" segment.​

YouTube announced the feature alongside a number of other changes designed to make longer videos easier to navigate, including a new way to loop parts of videos, and a forthcoming experiment for Premium subscribers that lets users to "seek to the exact moment in a video that you want to watch."

Article Link: YouTube Adds 'Most Replayed' Feature for Identifying Most Popular Parts of Videos

 

[MJaP]

We live in a world of shorter and shorter attention spans and a need for instant gratification it would seem.

 

[Kylo83]

Yet we still don’t have system auto dark mode

 

[NoelWalker]

Now I can finally replay the awkward moment when they announce the price of Pro Stand with ease

 

[Berti10]

2 Ads of 20sec. each every 4:10 min is nuts.

Also, charging 16,99€/month for mostly amateur content with channel sponsors and about products.

 

[pdaholic]

I’d rather have PIP.

 

[bassexpander]

I run Brave browser, so I don't see their stupid ads. And adding this "most replayed" thing is in response to the number of YouTubers slow-walking their videos with slooow speech and lots of filler before you get to the crux of the details -- dragging out the minutes for more view time and money. And you know YT will also drop more commercials in there.

 

[SoldOnApple]

Just like a certain adult website uses. Usually the peak is the moneyshot.

 

[noSpeed]

Did the development team name it “project money shot”?

 

[polyphenol]

Maybe, at least on some videos, the most repeated bit is where it is incomprehensible? viewers go back to try to understand. Rather than being the best bit, or however they want the most-played identification interpreted.

 

[GhostOS]

"Ok Google, tell me which bit to watch in this long video"

 

[sfrancis928]

We live in a world of shorter and shorter attention spans and a need for instant gratification it would seem.

That’s an easy and reductive take. For me it’s more about efficiency than gratification. My time is valuable. YT vids are much longer these days than they used to be. If I can find the important bit and be done with it then I have more time to do other things, like, not watching 25 minutes of content that don’t benefit me.

 

[winxmac]

I replay parts of the video if there is a flash of text that I missed or my attention is somewhere else and I missed what was being said in the video... I don't necessarily repeat parts of the video due to liking it but I do repeat the whole thing if it is a music video/music only that I want to see/hear again and again...

I don't know if skipping parts of the video and rewinding just to skip the sponsorship and get back to the start/continuation of the video counts as repeating parts of the video... I have Adguard + uBlock Origin on desktop browsers and I am using YouTube Premium on my mobile device which both gets rid of ads but not sponsorship by the YouTube channel/creator... At times I allow some sponsorship to play and not skip them but I usually skip most of them...

 

[44267547]

That’s a nifty little feature.

For me, I listen to quite a few podcasts, so obviously that wouldn’t really be applicable to that segment. But there are times where there are lengthy videos that I will watch, I don’t feel like watching the entire video, unless it’s for specific parts, so I could see myself using this feature.

 

[borntrouble]

******* has been using this feature for years

 

[MajorFubar]

We all know which five seconds of “Walk Like An Egyptian” was on every teen male’s repeated loop. Lol.

 

[Mr Fusion]

Just like a certain adult website uses. Usually the peak is the moneyshot.

Usually the peak is the first few seconds of the video, at which point most users say "meh..." and move on. I assume YouTube'll be similar...

 

[Wordwise]

That’s an easy and reductive take. For me it’s more about efficiency than gratification. My time is valuable. YT vids are much longer these days than they used to be. If I can find the important bit and be done with it then I have more time to do other things, like, not watching 25 minutes of content that don’t benefit me.

I find I"m viewing less and less videos because it's becoming more difficult to find 'the important part' versus scanning a page with text. That said, YouTube's 'most replayed' feature will be compiled from what everyone else deems interesting, which is not necessarily what I might find interesting.

 

[CoastalMaineBird]

If I can find the important bit and be done with it

But that's the thing - is it really the most important bit? If I post a video and then replay from 2:30-2:45 several times to start the ball rolling, won't a lot of other people replay that same piece to try to figure out "the most important bit"?
Maybe it gets replayed simply because it got replayed.

 

[Futurix]

Yet we still don’t have system auto dark mode

Yes! Bizarrely even their website has it now - but app is still manual selection only.

Also, charging 16,99€/month for mostly amateur content with channel sponsors and about products.

VPN yourself to some poor country and watch it go down by 4-5 times ?

 

[randyhudson]

Apple have really hit the mark with this update.

 

[CalMin]

I think it’s a direct response to YouTubers who stretch out their content to get more ad revenue.

Too many videos are empty filler content just to get the viewing time over some increment of 5 minutes (eg 5, 10; 15 etc.) because those videos generate more revenue.

I’ve seen link-baity titled videos with only 6 or 7 minutes of legit content fill out to 10.01 because of this, and I’m actually at the point where I won’t watch them if they’re just a few seconds over the 5 or 10 mark. I’m taking to you Rene Ritchie.

I applaud the change because it gives me a tool to see the interesting content in those videos and skip the rest. The YT content creators are going to hate it.

 

[NeoSe7en]

I’m so stoked they added this and not PiP. This. This is what everyone’s been waiting for. ?

 

[max2]

I use this.

‎Vinegar - Tube Cleaner

‎Vinegar is a Safari extension that replaces the YouTube player with a minimal HTML video tag. It removes ads, restores picture-in-picture, and keeps videos playing in the background. Note: The "can read information from webpages" text in the permission section is just unfortunate wording...

apps.apple.com

 

[jimbobb24]

The greatest feature YouTube introduced was variable speed. Everything at 2x speed makes YouTube tolerable again. Slow motion for sports is sometimes useful as well.