YouTube․com adds ‘Continue watching’ to resume unfinished videos on your phone

Abner Li | Oct 3 2021 - 7:44 pm PT

YouTube has a nifty mini-player on the web that’s now being used to let you quickly “Continue watching” videos from your phone and other devices.

If you’re in the middle of viewing something and leave YouTube for Android or iOS, opening YouTube on the web will display that video in the bottom-right corner. The mini-player is queued to a second or so before you paused. Instead of the channel name, “Continue watching” is shown underneath the video title.

Tapping the play button will automatically start in the shrunken down view, while a click anywhere will open the full video page.

This straightforward continuity feature also works if you paused what you’re watching on YouTube for Android TV, and presumably other television sets. It does not appear to function in the opposite direction with no “Continue watching” for the YouTube mobile apps.

We first spotted this capability earlier in the week, but more users are now seeing it on their devices. You of course have to be logged in to the same Google Account for history to sync.

It’s faster than resuming through the “Library” page and checking the “History” section, or having to manually add to “Watch later.” This continuity capability is somewhat reminiscent of the ability to see “Tabs from other devices” in Chrome