YouTube rolling out Video Chapters on Android, iOS, and the web

Abner Li | May 28 2020 - 11:26 am PT

YouTube today is making it easier to navigate videos — especially long ones — with “Video Chapters.” This new feature goes beyond the timestamps that some creators list in descriptions by placing chapters right in the progress bar.

The Google service wants to make it easier to “find an exact moment” in what you’re watching. On videos with timestamps, the red progress bar is physically partitioned, while the current chapter is noted to the right of the time indicator. As you scroll through a video, the chapter you are skimming is also identified below the preview.

YouTube notes how people like having full albums broken into songs and “enjoyed being able to jump to a specific part of a video.” Viewers also “watch more of the video, and come back more often on average.”

Creators are advised that “Video Chapters is an optional feature.”

If you choose to add chapters, we’ll use the timestamp data listed in your video description. To enable the feature, make sure the first timestamp listed in your video description starts at 0:00, and that your video has at least 3 timestamps or chapters, with each chapter being 10 seconds or longer.

If you want to disable video chapters on any of your content, you can adjust the first timestamp in your video description to be something other than 0:00 for example, just change it to be ‘0:01.’

Video Chapters are available on YouTube.com, Android, and iOS, with Google not mentioned the smart TV clients today.