This article is a companion piece to the article I wrote about YouTube’s autoplay feature. In that article, I argued how YouTube’s autoplay next video has some nice uses, but not every use of it is beneficial. I am going to give seven special features of YouTube which can also be used for their intended purposes and additionally benefit you as a viewer by making your viewing better without being too intrusive on your experience.
1. Subscribing to Channels
You have no doubt seen the little blue button at the bottom right of a channel’s page indicating “Subscribed.” This means that you have manually subscribed to that channel via following them, either through your web browser or your mobile app (formerly known as YouTube for Android).
The added benefit of this, which you will have to use the method I just outlined in order to experience, is that if you are on a channel’s page and it hasn’t yet started playing anything, hitting the button will cause the video count to drop by one. Then as soon as you can tell that it’s about to play (or already has played) its first non-advertisement video (and only then), pressing “Subscribed” again drops the video number back down by one. This way, if you want to continue watching that channel’s videos without distractions or advertisements, all you always need to do is press that little blue button. If the channel doesn’t automatically play another video after you reach 0 videos (because it doesn’t play automatically), just press “Subscribed” again and that number will drop by one.
2. Watch Later
The next special feature on YouTube which you may not be used to its full potential is the Watch Later list. This list can be viewed through either your web browser or app, but it’s only available in the latter if you have linked your Google account to that device. Keep in mind that this list cannot save videos from non-official YouTube apps (such as third-party ones downloaded onto Windows/OS X desktops, or Android/iOS apps downloaded outside of Google Play or iTunes).
By default, when you are logged into your account on any device with the YouTube app installed, when you watch a video it will automatically be added to the Watch Later list. This is a great feature that further personalizes your viewing by saving whatever it is you consider good enough to watch later.
So what’s so special about this? Quite simply, if you’re watching something and you decide that maybe in ten minutes or half an hour when you’re doing nothing else it would be nice to come back to that video, just add it to the Watch Later list. you can save right where it belongs: with all of your other videos.
If in the meantime until you want to sit down and take another look at a certain video, there is one caveat: don’t leave YouTube without pressing pause on the video you were previously watching! Otherwise, when you return it will be at the end and you’ll have to scrub back through it to find where you left off.
3. Searching for Hidden Easter Eggs
Okay, this isn’t exactly a YouTube-specific feature, but it’s still awesome nonetheless. I’ve talked about these on my blog before (in fact, here ), so if you’re already familiar with them check out those posts as well as my other videos which include some videos showing every single easter egg in existence; then come back here! If not, then read on.
By default when watching any video on YouTube there is always an option in the top-right menu under “Share” called “Find more hidden content like this.” This will automatically take you to a search results page for all videos containing easter eggs. The kicker is that these are not always in the form of a text box with an egg pun or quote, but sometimes it’s actually part of what’s shown on the screen when viewing the video! So if you come across any videos with cool easter eggs, why not try out this hidden feature? After all, everyone loves Easter Eggs!
4. Annotations
these are little pop-up boxes that appear on top of your screen when watching a video, typically containing no more than one sentence (often much shorter) and then automatically disappear after several seconds. They have been around for quite some time, so most users know how to deal with them by now: either click “Skip” or otherwise close them quickly, or wait until they disappear. However, most people don’t even know about the existence of annotations let alone this feature that allows you to disable them entirely!
Within each video on YouTube, there is always a “Show Annotations” button in the top-right menu under “Share.” Clicking it will immediately disable all annotations for that video, removing any pop-up boxes from appearing on your screen when watching. This saves time by allowing you to skip through annotations altogether and also prevents any potential distraction which may arise from them popping up without warning.
5. Audio Description
its basically just another form of subtitles available. only for videos uploaded after September 2012. You might have noticed these before if you are blind or otherwise visually impaired because it appears as text on the screen to provide information about what is happening in a video that might not otherwise be shared. You can tell if a video has this enabled if you see an “Audio description” option among the menu of other languages under “Subtitles/CC.”
There are two benefits to Audio Description: first, it gives extra detail, and second, it helps everybody else by allowing them to increase or decrease sound during playback. Let’s take a look at those now one-by-one.
Extra Details
First off, with audio descriptions, there is obviously more detailed information available for everyone. For example, let’s say you’re watching a cooking show and your favorite part is when the host teaches how to make a certain dessert with a unique technique. If you have audio description enabled then that method will be described in detail so that everyone can see exactly what’s going on.
In other words, when someone is cooking it can be difficult to watch but even more difficult for those who are not sighted! By giving accurate information about everything happening in a video, audio descriptions help everybody by allowing them to better understand the inner workings of videos and thus interact with them in ways that were not possible before.
6. Decreased/Increased Sound
Videos on YouTube play at the same volume regardless of where you’re watching from: your home computer, laptop, or tablet in a quiet room or a crowded cafeteria with blaring music in the background; they all play at the same volume. Of course, this is not always what you want, especially if you are watching with headphones on and the person next to you has the sound cranked up!
People who are deaf or hard of hearing can benefit from the audio description because they are able to reduce the video’s volume during playback without affecting other people around them. So even though someone is using their laptop at work or in class, they will be able to listen quietly while still following along with the action on-screen with text descriptions appearing simultaneously.
7. YouTube Studio Beta
This is a brand new feature by YouTube which allows users to edit videos before uploading them! It was released early last year but most people don’t know about it so I decided to include it here.
The YouTube Studio Beta allows users to add annotations, cards, and end screens before uploading their videos. These can be done all at once or individually for each video, plus you can save drafts so that you don’t have to keep re-entering the information whenever you want to make a change. There’s also a feature that lets other collaborators on the project add and edit content as well so if multiple people are working together on a single video then they can all work simultaneously!
As of right now, there isn’t much use for this feature except that it is free; however, I’m sure that in the future we will see many more features added such as options to share templates (like ones made by your favorite creators), comment threads and maybe even a full-fledged video editor from YouTube’s side of things.
The YouTube Studio Beta is definitely a cool feature and it helps users edit their videos more efficiently, so I would highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already!
Conclusion paragraph:
The 7 YouTube features we’ve discussed should help you get started on your own journey to becoming a great YouTuber. We hope that this post has provided some insight into how one can successfully navigate the world of online video and become an influencer with thousands, if not millions, of subscribers. With these 7 special YouTube features in mind, all it takes is for you to put yourself out there – whether through creating content or simply commenting on other videos! Either way, don’t be discouraged by any negative responses because remember what they say- “don’t give up!” Hopefully, our tips have helped you better understand how to leverage the power of YouTube as part of your marketing strategy.