When people talk about today's virtually popular social sharing websites, YouTube often gets left out of the conversation in favor of sites like Facebook and Twitter.

But don't be fooled: YouTube has a lot going for it. Although Facebook might be the largest social networking site, YouTube has the second greatest reach after Facebook in terms of general usage. It's as well the 2d biggest search engine behind its parent company, Google.

And there are a ton of cool things you tin do with YouTube that y'all might not know about, whether yous apply YouTube to picket videos, postal service them, or both. For example, did you know YouTube has its own virtual reality (VR) setting to view whatsoever video in 360 degrees? Or that yous tin can create a YouTube time link that brings viewers to a specific moment in the video?  → Free Templates: How to Use YouTube for Business [Download Now]

Mind-blowing stuff, people. To help you brand the most out of the nonetheless very popular platform, nosotros've put together a list of 20 of the lesser-known hacks, tips, and features YouTube has to offer.

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20 YouTube Tricks, Hacks, and Features You'll Want to Know About

ane. You can turn any YouTube video into a GIF using the URL.

Everyone loves GIFs, only knowing how to brand them isn't common knowledge. Well, it should exist, because all information technology takes is a little YouTube URL pull a fast one on.

To create a GIF from a YouTube video: Select a video to watch on YouTube and find the URL at the peak of your browser. Add the word "gif" correct earlier the domain name and then it reads, "www.gifyoutube.com/[your-video-tag]."

This will bring you to gifs.com, with your video already uploaded and ready for editing. Here, you'll find a bill of fare of options to the left-hand side with a timeline bar forth the bottom of your video. You can set the GIF duration, crop its frame, add captions, and more.

YouTube trick to create a GIF from a video.

Click "Create GIF" on the top-right and it'll prompt yous for a GIF title and set of tags. Then click "Adjacent," and you lot take a handy landing page from which to share your newly minted GIF. Keep in mind you can only download this GIF to an offline file past signing upward with gifs.com.

2. You can create a link that starts a YouTube video at a certain time.

Always wanted to send someone a YouTube video, but point them to a specific moment? Let's say you're trying to recruit your friends to acquire the trip the light fantastic in Justin Bieber's "Pitiful" music video with y'all.

Instead of sending your friends the general YouTube link and instructing them to fast-forward to the 0:50 minute mark, you can actually send them a specific YouTube time link that starts the video at whichever fourth dimension yous choose. Click here to see what I mean.

Alright, here'south how to exercise it:

To create a link that starts a YouTube video at a sure time: Open up the video and click "Share" to the far right of the video title. Then, in the window of options that appears, cheque the box side by side to "Start at:" and type in the time (in hours:minutes:seconds) yous desire. Alternatively, you tin can break the video at the time you lot desire it to offset and that field will autofill.

YouTube time link of a Justin Bieber video.

After a few moments, you'll run into a tag add together itself to the finish of the generic YouTube link (in this case, ?t=50s). Just copy that link and paste it wherever you'd like.

It's worth noting that you can't embed a video so it starts at a certain time; you can't simply link to it.

3. Yous can easily come across the written transcripts of people'due south videos.

Did y'all know YouTube automatically generates a written transcript for every single video uploaded to its website? That's right -- and anyone has access to that transcript unless the user manually hides information technology from viewers.

I tin can retrieve of a number of different situations where video transcripts can come in handy. For instance, perhaps you desire to write downwards a quote from a video, but the tedium of pausing-and-typing, pausing-and-typing would bulldoze you up a wall. Or perhaps you need to detect a specific section of a video, but don't desire to rewatch the whole thing to find it. With a transcript in mitt, you lot can discover data like this without doing it all by hand.

To see a video's transcript: Open the video in YouTube and press the "More" tab underneath the video title. Choose "Transcript" from the drop-down carte.

YouTube's more tag to find the video transcript.

(If you aren't seeing this option, it's because the user chose to hide the transcript.)

This transcript will appear as a new module in the same window. In many cases, the user who uploaded the video will not have gone dorsum and manually polished the transcript, so it won't be perfect. Merely information technology'll certainly save you some time and pain.

Example of a YouTube transcript.

4. You lot tin can help your video get constitute in search by editing or uploading a transcript.

Both YouTube and its parent company Google look at a number of factors when ranking videos in search to determine what your video is well-nigh, and your transcript is one of them. (An fifty-fifty bigger ranking factor is your video'southward description, which is why Digital Marketing Consultant Ryan Stewart suggests that you actually paste your transcript right into the description box, too.)

To add a transcript to your video: Open up the video on YouTube, and y'all'll meet a row of icons just beneath the play button. Click the icon on the far right for "Subtitles/CC." (CC stands for "Closed Captions.)

YouTube closed captioning (CC).

Set your language if you haven't already. Then, y'all'll then be prompted to cull among three different ways to add together subtitles or airtight captions to your video ...

  1. Upload a pre-written text transcript or a timed subtitles file. (Acquire more virtually the file types you can upload and more here.)
  2. Paste in a full transcript of the video, wherein subtitle timings volition be set automatically.
  3. Type them in equally you picket the video.

The folks at YouTube have done some cracking things to brand that third option (typing as you lookout) as painless as possible. For instance, if you cheque a box next to "Suspension video while typing," it'll make the whole procedure a lot faster. Here'southward a GIF showing that in action:

YouTube transcribe page.

Learn more well-nigh optimizing your YouTube videos for search in the below video.

5. You can utilize YouTube to easily get free transcriptions of your videos and audio files.

This is the last one most transcripts, I promise -- but I'll bet you never thought about them this fashion. As yous know from #3, YouTube automatically adds a transcript to every video. Just if you're looking for a ane-off transcription of an audio or video file and don't desire to pay for a service, YouTube's congenital-in captioning system isn't a bad place to start. Y'all can always clean it up later.

To get an automated transcription for a video: But upload your video to YouTube, open it on YouTube's website, printing the "More" tab underneath the video title, and choose "Transcript" from the drop-down bill of fare. The transcript will appear as a new module in the aforementioned window. If y'all want to make clean information technology upward, follow the steps outlined in #3 for a user-friendly experience.

To go an automated transcription for an sound file: You'll demand to upload your audio recording to YouTube using a service like TunesToTube. It'll take anywhere between 2–thirty minutes for YouTube to upload it. So, follow the instructions for getting an automated transcription for a video, outlined to a higher place.

six. Y'all tin create, share, and collaborate on video playlists.

Simply like on your other favorite media sharing sites like Spotify and iTunes, yous can create a "playlist" on YouTube -- which is really just a identify to store and organize the videos (your own and others'). You can keep playlists private, make them public, or even share them directly with others.

Playlists are useful for many different types of users, from an private collecting cooking videos for their upcoming dinner political party to a brand that's segmenting its YouTube video content by topic. For example, Tasty's YouTube playlists break up recipes by meal blazon, making it easier for people to browse and find what they're looking for:

Tasty playlists example.

To create a playlist on desktop: Become to your Playlists folio by clicking hither or clicking your business relationship icon in the peak correct, choosing "Creator Studio," clicking "Video Managing director" on the left, and choosing "Playlists." Then, click "New Playlist" on the superlative correct and cull whether yous'd like to go along it private or arrive public.

YouTube create new playlist page.

To create a playlist on mobile: Click here for instructions explaining how to create new playlists using your iOS or Android mobile devices.

To add together a video to a playlist: If you're adding a video to a playlist while you lot're watching it, click the "Add together to" icon below the video title and cheque the box next to the playlist to which you'd like to add it.

Add to button for creating YouTube playlists.

If you want to add a video to a playlist right from your Playlists page, simply click "Add Video" and either paste in a video URL, choose a video from your uploads, or search for a video on YouTube. Once yous find the video you lot want to add together, select the "Add to" carte from that video and add it to the playlist.

Your friends tin contribute to your playlists, besides. All you accept to do is plough on the power to interact on playlists. Once you plow it on, anyone yous share a playlist link with tin can add videos to that playlist. (They can also remove any videos they've added, too.)

To add friends to a playlist: Go to your Playlists folio again and open up the playlist yous want to collaborate on. Click "Playlist Settings" and choose the "Collaborate" tag. Toggle on the setting that allows collaborators to add videos to the playlist, and from at that place, you can send them a link where they tin add videos to the playlist.

YouTube collaborate playlist setting.

Once your friend's been invited to a playlist, they'll be able to add together new videos to it and remove videos they've added in the past. They just have to follow some on-screen instructions first to ostend they want to be a correspondent and to save the playlist to their own account.

When you add a video to a playlist you're collaborating on, your name will appear next to the video in the playlist, and anybody who'southward been invited to collaborate on that playlist will go a notification that a new video has been added.

(To learn more nearly how to manage contributors, cease accepting contributions to a playlist, and and so on, read this YouTube Back up page.)

7. You can relieve videos to watch later.

Ever seen YouTube videos you wished you could bookmark for after? Possibly you aren't able to turn the sound on at the moment, or perhaps you just don't have time to watch it. Well, YouTube took a page out of Facebook's ... book ... past adding something very like to Facebook's "Save for Later on" feature. On YouTube, you tin can save videos to a "Lookout Subsequently" playlist to access whenever you want.

The "Sentinel Later" playlist operates just similar a normal playlist, so the instructions are identical to the previous step (except you can't invite others to collaborate on your "Sentinel After" playlist).

To add a video to your "Watch Afterward" playlist: Open the video on YouTube and click the "Add to" icon below the video title and check the box adjacent to the playlist you lot'd like to add information technology to, simply like yous did in the previous step. The steps are very like on mobile, but click here if yous want the full instructions from YouTube's Support page.

To access those videos: Merely go to your YouTube homepage and choose "Lookout man Later" from the menu on the upper left-hand side of your screen.

YouTube watch later option.

From at that place, you can picket the videos you lot were saving, as well as easily remove videos from that list that you've already watched.

8. You can create your own custom YouTube URL.

Want to requite people an easy-to-remember web address to get to your YouTube channel? You can actually create a custom URL, which you tin base on things similar your display name, your YouTube username, any current vanity URLs that you have, or the name of your linked website. HubSpot's, for example, is https://www.youtube.com/hubspot.

Important Note: Before you lot do this, make sure you're positive this is the custom URL you desire -- because once it's approved, you can't request to change information technology, nor tin you transfer information technology to someone else. Keep in heed that it'll be linked to both your YouTube channel and your Google+ identity, too.

Unfortunately, not anybody'due south eligible for a custom URL. To get ane, yous have to have 100 or more than subscribers, be at least xxx days former, take an uploaded photo as your channel icon, and accept uploaded channel art. If that sounds like you, keep reading.

To claim your custom URL: Open your YouTube account settings and click "Advanced" in your name section.

overview_youtube_screenshot.png

If yous're eligible for a custom URL, you lot'll be prompted to claim yours past clicking a link.

advanced_youtube_settings.png

Select the box next to "I hold to the Terms of Service." Then, in one case you're absolutely certain it's the URL y'all want (since you tin't ever alter information technology), click "Change URL" to make information technology final.

9. You can add an finish screen or cards to promote content.

In 2008, YouTube began allowing clickable links YouTube chosen "annotations" that you could insert into your videos. These annotations worked kind of like phone call-to-activeness buttons for directing people to subscribe to your channel, see merchandise or a fundraising entrada, visit another resources to larn more than, and and so on.

In order to make them more natural parts of the viewing feel, YouTube has replaced annotations with finish screens, where you tin display more than visually pleasing call-to-activeness cards in the final 30 seconds of your content.

How to Add an End Screen

Do your favorite YouTube creators have a fancy closing screen that encourages y'all to go on watching their videos? For case, here's 1 from Saturday Night Live:

SNL_youtube_end screen.png

You can create a customized end screen, too. They help proceed viewers on your aqueduct past suggesting other videos and sites they can check out. Here's how to practise it:

Navigate to your Video Managing director, tap "Edit," and select "Stop screen & Annotations" from the drop-downward menu:

YouTube end screen call to action.

From there, y'all're taken to the End screen creator studio, where you tin can play effectually with different templates and background to determine how you desire your terminate screen to appear. And so, click the "Add element" bill of fare to decide where you want to send viewers from your terminate screen.

addelement_youtube.png

Any YouTube creators can add an end screen to customize their channels. Here'south an explainer article with more details and inspirational ideas.

How to Add together a Bill of fare

You tin use cards to annunciate products used in your videos or links on your website you want to market on YouTube. If viewers tap the "i" in the upper-right mitt corner of a video, the cards expand, as in the example below:

To add a card to a YouTube video, caput to your Video Managing director, tap "Edit," and select "Cards" from the drop-downwardly bill of fare.

And so, choose where in the video you want cards to appear, and tap the "Add card" drop-downward menu to choose what you want the card to promote. From there, customize the content that volition appear to viewers when they tap the "i" while viewing your video:

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ten. YouTube has a big library of high-quality, royalty-free sound effects and music you can browse and download.

Desire to add some absurd sound effects or music to your YouTube video (or any video)? YouTube is at that place for you. Information technology has a whole library of loftier-quality, 320kbps audio tracks and sound effects that you tin can download royalty-free and add to your videos. (Or listen to in your free fourth dimension. We won't estimate.)

To add together music or sound effects to your video: Open YouTube'southward Audio Library by clicking hither or opening your Creator Studio, clicking "Create" in the menu on the left-hand side, and choosing "Audio Library."

Now, the fun begins. By default, it'll start you lot on the "Sound effects" tab. Here, you can search sounds using the search bar, like I did in the screenshot below for motorbike sounds.

youtube-audio-library.png

You tin can too toggle by category (everything from human voices to weather sounds) or scroll through favorites that yous've starred in the past. For easy admission in the time to come, select the star to add the rails to your Favorites. The bars next to the songs testify how popular a track is.

If you switch over to the "Music" bar, you can browse through all of its royalty-gratuitous music. You won't discover the Beatles in hither, simply you lot will detect some good stuff -- like suspenseful music, uplifting music, holiday music, jazz, and more. Instead of toggling by category, yous tin can toggle by genre, mood, instrument, elapsing, and so on.

(Note: Some of the music files in there may have additional attribution requirements yous have to follow, but those are pretty clearly laid out on a vocal-past-song-basis. You can learn more on YouTube'due south Support page here.)

Once you lot've found a rail yous similar, click the pointer to download information technology and it'll download direct to your computer equally an MP3 file. Then, you tin do whatever you want with it.

If you want to source sounds for your videos exterior of YouTube, you'll just have to brand sure to you lot're following all the rules for sourcing them. Refer to this YouTube Support page for all-time practices for sourcing audio, and this one to learn YouTube'south music policies.

xi. Add adjustments and creative effects with YouTube Enhancements.

YouTube has faded a number of features it experimented with at 1 time -- including annotations and a not-and so-popular slideshow creator -- but i editing tool that remains quite handy is Enhancements. Ix effects you'd normally find on third-party video editing software, y'all can now accept advantage of natively through YouTube:

  • Auto-fix lighting and color
  • Stabilize shaky camera motions
  • Utilize irksome move
  • Use time lapse
  • Trim out parts of your video
  • Rotate the view
  • Apply filters
  • Custom blurring
  • Mistiness faces

To brand enhancements to an existing video: Click into your Video Manager and find a video you lot'd like to edit. Select the drop-down icon next to "Edit" to the correct of the video, and select "Enhancements."

YouTube enhancements and effects feature.

YouTube filters and other enhancements.

Images via filmora

If you're editing on a computer, this push volition open all 9 tools to the correct of your video, where you tin add together various fixes, filters, and blurring effects and see how they alter the final production in real time.

Note that not all enhancements are bachelor on mobile devices. On Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, you can only trim, add together music, and apply filters. Read this article to larn more virtually YouTube enhancements.

12. Play YouTube videos in the background on mobile devices.

Sometimes, your own music playlist just isn't cutting it. Or mayhap you desire to heed to your favorite creative person'south operation at an awards show.

Either manner, if you've tried listening to music on YouTube via your mobile device, yous may take noticed ane thing: You can't navigate out of the app. You have to go on YouTube open, and you tin't use your phone for annihilation else, in order to mind to something on YouTube. Kind of frustrating if y'all're trying to multitask on your commute home, right?

Now, at that place are hacks so you tin can listen to YouTube content in the background while however using your mobile device. Here's what yous do:

How to Spotter YouTube Videos in the Background: iOS

Open Safari on your mobile device, and navigate to a video you want to watch on https://www.youtube.com. Start playing the video y'all desire to heed to, and so tap the Home button to close out of Safari. (I chose Katy Perry.)

youtube_katy1.png

Then, swipe upwards on your dwelling screen to reveal the Action Center.

Then, swipe left to reveal the second screen on your Action Eye. The details of the video yous selected on YouTube should appear, and from there, merely tap Play to keep jamming.

youtube_katy2.0.png

youtube_katy2.png

How to Watch YouTube Videos in the Background: Android

Launch Firefox or Chrome on your mobile device, and navigate to a video you desire to play on https://www.youtube.com. And so, tap the "Settings" menu in the upper correct-manus corner (the ellipses) and select "Request Desktop Site."

turn-to-desktop-android1-1200x800-c.jpg

Image via DigitalTrends

And so, commencement playing the video on YouTube, and tap the Home push button to render to your home screen. The audio volition keep playing in the background as you apply other apps.

thirteen. Yous can alive stream videos to YouTube.

Live streaming video has been a big topic of conversation for the past few years. It'due south seen massive growth, specially in the past few years with the advent of Twitter'south Periscope, Facebook Live, and Instagram alive videos.

Learning how to get live on YouTube is a little more circuitous (and confusing) than live streaming using similar platforms. On YouTube'due south easier streaming pick, there'due south no simple "commencement" button; instead, you actually have to download encoding software and gear up it up to use alive streaming at all. YouTube has identified xiii+ encoders that are Live Verified.

If you lot're streaming a alive outcome, though, all you demand is a webcam. We'll go to that in a second.

Live Stream From Your Desktop Figurer

Log in to YouTube and click the "Upload" button at the meridian-right of your screen. Ordinarily, this is where you'd upload a pre-existing video -- but instead, you'll desire to detect the "Live Streaming" module on the right-hand side of your screen. Click "Become Started" in that module.

youtube_features_live_streaming.png

Before you get alive, YouTube will first confirm that your channel is verified and that you have no live stream restrictions in the last xc days. Once that'south all prepare, you have two options for streaming: "Stream now" and "Alive Events."

Stream Now

Stream Now is the simpler, quicker option for live streaming, which is why it'south YouTube'south default for live streaming. You lot'll come across a fancy dashboard like the ane below when you choose "Alive Streaming" on the left-paw Creator Studio card:

youtube_livestream dashboard.png

Over again, you'll notice at that place's no "starting time" button on the dashboard. This is where you'll need to open your encoder and start and end your streaming from there. Here's YouTube's Live Streaming FAQ page for more detailed information.

Live Events

Live Events gives you a lot more control over the live stream. Y'all can preview it before it goes live, it'll requite you backup redundancy streams, and you tin can start and terminate the stream when you want.

Choose "Alive Events" from your live streaming dashboard one time you've enabled information technology. Here's what the events dashboard looks like, and you lot can learn more nigh it here.

youtube-live-event.png

When you end streaming, we'll automatically upload an archive of your alive stream to your channel. Notation that your completed alive stream videos are automatically made public on your channel by default as soon as you're done recording. To make them disappear from the public eye once you lot're done, yous can select "Make archive individual when consummate" in the "Stream Options" section of your live dashboard.

Live Stream From Your Mobile Device

YouTube has likewise rolled out live streaming from mobile devices for YouTube creators with 10,000 or more subscribers (as of the date of this posting -- that will be available to all creators soon, co-ordinate to YouTube'south weblog mail service).

Alive streaming is more intuitive from mobile devices than on desktop computers. Qualified creators can simply open their YouTube app on mobile, tap the camera icon at the top of the screen, and choose "Go Live."

From there, creators tin enter details almost the broadcast before immediately recording live for their subscribers, equally shown beneath:

CameoFlow-1.gif

Epitome via YouTube

For more instruction on how to go alive on YouTube across devices, YouTube published a Aid article here. Want to see what live videos others are recording on YouTube? You tin can browse popular YouTube videos that are alive correct at present by clicking here.

xiv. Yous can upload and watch 360-degree videos (live and pre-recorded) -- and in VR.

YouTube first announced its support for 360-degree videos back in March 2015, and it was a full novelty -- not to mention a game-changer. Since then, brands, athletes, and other users have created some awesome 360-degree content, similar this video from Samsung:

Every bit you can encounter, the experience as a viewer is really, actually cool. On desktop, y'all can click around the video to see all the different angles while the video plays. On mobile, it's even cooler: You tin motility your camera around to change the bending. Yous can browse the trending 360-degree and VR videos here.

How to Create a 360-degree Video on YouTube

For this, you'll need some serious equipment. Cameras with 360-degree capability that are compatible with YouTube are listed here on YouTube's Support page, along with how to create and upload a 360-caste video file.

What nearly live video in 360 degrees? That proclamation would come a year after the offset i, in April 2016 -- the very same week Facebook announced its own pattern for a 360-caste camera. Luckily for the folks at YouTube, it crush Facebook by supporting both live video and 360-degree footage all at once.

How to Scout Whatsoever YouTube Video in VR

The Verge called 360 live-streamed videos "the gateway drug to virtual reality" for YouTube. Other than the YouTube website or app, yous don't need whatever fancy equipment to be able to watch a 360-degree live video and feel like you're basically at that place.

That doesn't mean a headset isn't an choice -- and an awesome one at that, since YouTube released its Cardboard characteristic. Paper-thin is available on any YouTube video you watch or upload, and works with Google Paper-thin (an actual VR headset by Google) and several other VR headsets bachelor today.

To use Cardboard while watching a YouTube video via mobile: Select any video in your YouTube mobile app, then tap the three dots in the upper-right hand corner of the video. In the driblet-down, select "View in Paper-thin." You may already come across this option visible in the bottom-correct of 360-degree videos.

youtube_features_view_cardboard.png

This will prompt you lot to connect your mobile device to a compatible VR device. One time you do, gear up for a stellar experience, and just imagine what this could mean for the content with which you lot populate your own YouTube aqueduct.

15. YouTube ads target y'all based on an algorithm similar to Google and Facebook.

How does the YouTube algorithm decide which ads play on the videos y'all scout?

Turns out it works a lot like Google and Facebook ads do. Like on other complimentary sites, the advertisers help fund the YouTube experience in return for exposure to ads. You lot'll see certain ads over others considering of your demographic groups, your interests (which is judged in office by what you search on Google and YouTube) and the content you've viewed before, including whether or not you've interacted with the advertiser's videos, ads, or YouTube aqueduct.

YouTube's algorithms also try to make sure people aren't overloaded with ads while watching videos -- and so it really sometimes won't testify ads on monetizable videos, even when there'southward a demographic lucifer.

Hither are the five advertizing formats you lot can expect to see on YouTube, and how they work:

A. Display ads, which bear witness upward next to the video and only appear only on desktop and laptop computers. The advertiser gets paid when you see or click on the advertizing, depending on their selection.

youtube-display-ads.png

Image via YouTube'south Creator Academy

B. Overlay ads, which appear across the bottom twenty% of the video window and currently just appears only on desktop and laptop computers. Yous can X out of the advertizing at any time.

youtube-overlay-ads.png

Image via YouTube's Creator Academy

C. TrueView in-stream, skippable video ads, which are most mutual ads. These are the ones you lot can skip after watching for five seconds. Advertisers can put it earlier, during (yikes!), or afterward the video plays, and they get paid only if y'all watch at least 30 seconds of the clip or to the cease of the video ad -- whichever comes showtime.

youtube-in-stream-skippable-video-ads.png

Image via YouTube'south Creator University

D. Non-skippable video ads, which are those longer, 15-or-more-second ads y'all see before plays and can't skip after any period of time, no affair how much you shout at your screen.

youtube-non-skippable-video-ads-2.png

Prototype via YouTube's Creator Academy

E. Midroll ads, which are ads that are only available for videos over 15 minutes long that are spaced within the video similar Television commercials. You lot need to lookout man the ad before continuing through the video. How the advertiser gets paid depends on the type of ad: If the midroll is a TrueView advertizement, yous'd have to lookout 30 seconds of the finish or the entire ad -- whichever is shorter. If information technology's a CPM-based ad, yous accept to watch the entire ad no thing how long information technology is.

youtube-midroll-ads-1.png

Image Credit: YouTube'southward Creator Academy

F. Bumper ads, which are short, non-skippable ads upwardly to six seconds long that play before the video the viewer has selected. Bumper ads are optimized for mobile devices and must be watched in their entirety earlier viewers tin can progress to the video they want to view.

bumperad_youtube.png

sixteen. Y'all tin can remove ads from YouTube videos (and watch videos offline) for 10 bucks a month.

Video ads are the reason yous can lookout man videos for free on YouTube. It'southward a fact many of us have come to take. Simply with YouTube's subscription service YouTube Carmine, that doesn't necessarily take to be truthful anymore.

For $9.99 a month, you tin picket YouTube videos ... without any ads. And, in addition to advertizing-free videos, y'all tin can save videos on your mobile device and watch them in the background and/or offline, and you can utilize YouTube's Music App (on iOS and Android) in the background, offline, and/or on audio mode. This is non a drill.

You lot'd retrieve the lure of ad-complimentary videos would have acquired more than of an uproar since its launch in tardily 2015, particularly given YouTube's domination in the music space. Surprisingly, I haven't heard much noise about it. But YouTube hasn't disclosed subscriber numbers (the service reportedly has around 1.five million subscribers) then it's hard to tell how well information technology's doing. Either way, it's good to know nearly -- especially if y'all like collecting songs and music videos like I practise, but don't like when they get broken upward by ads.

17. You can apply Google Trends to explore and compare popular YouTube search terms over time.

You might already utilize Google Trends to look at the popularity of specific search terms over time. (Information technology can be a nifty marketing tool for making smarter keyword choices, for instance.) But did you know you tin apply it to compare the popularity of YouTube search queries, specifically?

All y'all have to do is open Google Trends and blazon a search term into the "Explore topics" search bar at the top. Once that page opens up, click on "Web Search" to open a drop-down card, and choose "YouTube Search" and so it filters by YouTube searches specifically.

youtube_googletrends.png

You might find that, for some search terms, the search trends are very dissimilar on Google (above) than on YouTube (below).

youtube_googletrends_2.png

eighteen. There'south a 'safer' version of YouTube available for your kids.

Any parent volition tell you how scary it is for their kids to theoretically have access to everything public on the internet. But for your younger kids, there are ways to curb that access and have more command of what they're watching and finding -- including a kids' version of YouTube called YouTube Kids.

The folks at YouTube call YouTube Kids "a safer version of YouTube." Information technology's not a wide-open up library of online videos like YouTube is; instead, it uses filters powered by algorithms to select videos from YouTube that are safety for kids to sentry. It's too totally free, thanks to ads (which are regulated as advisedly as possible).

You tin can either turn the search characteristic on or off, depending on whether you're absurd with your kids searching for videos themselves -- or if y'all'd rather limit them to a certain set of videos selected by the app, forth with those the app recommends based on what they've watched already. You tin can gear up a timer to limit how much time a child spends on the app, which is music to many parents' ears.

The algorithm is darn good -- recall, Google is YouTube's parent visitor -- but, as it warns in its parents' guide, "no algorithm is perfect."

xix. You tin can at present clear your YouTube History.

You might eventually desire to delete items from your YouTube search or lookout history. YouTube lets yous completely articulate your history, pause your history and so it stops recording what y'all search for and watch from that indicate frontward, or go through your history and delete certain videos.

To delete your history on your desktop or mobile device: Navigate to the "Sentinel History" menu. Here's where information technology lives on your desktop browser homepage and in your mobile app, respectively:

youtube_history.png

youtube_library.png youtube_history_mobile.png

From at that place, you tin can "clear all watch history" (permanently delete the record of everything you lot've watched), "pause watch history" (stop recording the videos you sentry going forward), or individually remove videos from your history past tapping the X or ellipses side by side to videos. Here's what it looks similar on desktop and on mobile, below:

youtube_features_clear_watch_history.png

youtube_delete_history_mobile.png

YouTube published a Help article if yous need more instruction for deleting items from your YouTube scout history, likewise.

xx. You can learn nigh YouTube's copyrights terms from a cast of ridiculous puppets.

Fabricated it this far? Hither's a piffling reward: YouTube's "Copyrights Basics" FAQ page, which is, fittingly a YouTube video -- and features a pretty colorful cast of characters. It'southward actually super informative, and information technology looks like YouTube's video team had a lot of fun making it.

My favorite line is probably, "Y'all know there are links on this webpage, correct? Y'all don't accept to sentry this." Although the chorus of gorilla puppets was pretty great, too.

Savour.

We hope nosotros've opened your eyes to some of the more than crawly YouTube hacks, tips, and features out there that you may not take known most. At present log on to YouTube and do some exploring yourself. The platform certainly isn't going anywhere.

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Originally published Oct 26, 2020 7:00:00 AM, updated July 26 2021