YouTube Premium members can now test AI-powered ‘Jump ahead’

Abner Li | May 5 2024 - 4:30 am PT

Back in March, YouTube started testing “Jump ahead” and is now making it more widely available through youtube.com/new for Premium subscribers.

After double-tapping to skip ahead, you’ll see a button that “jump[s] you to where most viewers typically skip ahead to.” The pill-shaped “Jump ahead” button appears for a few seconds in the bottom-right corner before disappearing if you just wanted to go ahead by 10 seconds.

Upon tapping, you’ll get a “Jumping over commonly skipped section” overlay that’s badged by YouTube Premium, like “Premium controls.” YouTube is leveraging AI and watch data to identify that “next best point.”

When YouTube first previewed this capability a few weeks ago, it was referred to as a “very small experiment” that some users were automatically opted-in to. It’s now more widely available through the youtube.com/new experiments page, though this one is only visible in the mobile client: Settings > Try experimental new features.

This is only available for the YouTube Android app in the US with English videos. It’s “not available on every video,” and the common factor looks to be a lot of views. You must be a YouTube Premium member to enable this experiment today with a June 1 end date listed, though that could always be extended.

It joins the “Ask” questions generated AI feature.