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YouTube is the world’s most popular video-sharing website with over 30 million viewers everyday, now that’s some huge numbers. YouTube boasts of hundreds of categories of videos from various categories and you are sure shot to find something for entertainment, gain knowledge or even learn a skill. More than half of the total views of YouTube account for mobile users, that is from the YouTube app on Android and iOS. Mobile apps are hugely varied from websites viewed on computers, this brings a sense of interactive UI as everything is optimised for the smallest screen possible. With so many views, coming from mobile devices alone, YouTube has implemented several tips and tricks over the years in the YouTube app.

You might be aware of the OG tips like double tap either side of screen in landscape mode while watching a video to fast forward or backward the video, using YouTube audio in background through the web browser in phones, will not bore you with those tips and tricks that everyone knows, instead I bring you some modern ones which will simplify your YouTube app usage. So here it goes…

1. Duration/Remaining Time Toggle

When watching a YouTube video, the YouTube players always shows the duration of the video remaining. But this can be toggled to remaining time of the video by just simply tapping on the time. Many people prefer time remaining over duration of the video and the same is provided by external video players like MX Player or VLC Media Player. You’ll understand better from the GIF below.

2. Swipe down to exit the video

This is a purely 2020 feature in which it adds another way of exiting a video from landscape mode. Just swipe down from the top when watching a video and you’ll go back to the previous screen. No need to tap back navigation key or rotating the device in horizontal. Personally, it took time to get used to it but it is a nifty YouTube trick when you get a hold of it. If pulled down from exactly the edge then the normal Android status bar would appear so rather pull down a little away from the edge to avoid that.

3. Incognito Mode

Incognito is very evident from Chrome’s incognito mode and performs exactly the same function i.e. not tracking the users behavior, searches or what the person views. This is extremely useful when you don’t want to get recommended videos on your feed based on the searches or video watched on the ‘Incognito mode’. Also comes in handy when lending you phone to somebody and make him use the incognito mode. This mode can be accessed from the profile tab in YouTube but at the same time I feel it should be more accessible and not stored deep down the settings.

Also read Use YouTube Music legally without paying for it

4. Using Android’s rotate prompt on navigation bar/gestures

This is not limited to YouTube only rather any Android 9 and above phone. If the auto-rotation is kept off then a rotate prompt appears on the Navigation bar or at the corner of the screen depending you using navigational gestures or the OG navigation bar.

Similarly in YouTube you can use this to rotate the videos to landscape rather then stretching the finger to the full screen button the video player. On the other hand if you leave auto-rotation always ON then there’s no use of that as the phone would rotate accordingly as the user rotates the device. This Android 9 and above trick is useful for those who don’t like having auto-rotate enabled which can sometimes change screen orientation even when you don’t want it to. Basically, this can play a role in maximizing your YouTube experience. Personally I have gotten so used to it that when I use a Android 9 and below phone or phones which have auto-rotate enabled I am always ready to hit that rotation prompt when it appears but that’s not the case. This nifty Android trick has been carried over to the way of using YouTube.

Note – Realme phones running on Android 10/ Realme UI 1 do NOT support the ‘rotation prompt’ when using the navigation gestures. Thus, you can’t enjoy this nifty little YouTube app trick. But the good news is that, on Realme UI 2.0. the brand has fixed this.

5. Break Reminders & Bedtime Mode

This is extremely useful if you spend your most time watching YouTube videos and later having a gut feeling that no productive work was accomplished. We all have been there and this is where this ‘being productive’ features come into the play. These features are :-

• Remind me to take a break – This as it states, pops up a message conveying that you have reached the watching threshold and it will convey the same every few minutes or hours you specify it
• Remind me when it’s bedtime – This will not send a notification but rather just a popup reminder to let you know it’s the sleep hours. Nothing as such that YouTube video won’t plays and not as strict as grey out mode on Digital Wellbeing. It’s just to remind to not use YouTube any longer and the start & end time can be set for the same.

This nifty YouTube tip can really help if you take it seriously rather then just dismissing the reminders everytime. If you binge watch YouTube but at the same time get your work done productively then this one’s definitely for you.

Bonus New Trick – Swipe up for Fullscreen

Just recently in October 2020, YouTube has launched a new trick to transition into the full screen mode which was before possible only by tapping the fullscreen button in YouTube’s video player.

Similarly, swipe down on the video when watching in fullscreen to exit the video as mentioned earlier in this post. YouTube now caters both enter and exit from fullscreen and you sure gotta try these nifty gestures.

YouTube is an app which almost everyone uses on their smartphones be it for entertainment, studies, how-to’s and so much more. Being this popular, knowing some wonderful YouTube app tips and tricks provides a more rich experience.

Hope you found something useful out of these YouTube tips and tricks as after all these are some new ones which YouTube has launched over the past couple of months.