When people talk virtually today's most popular social sharing websites, YouTube oftentimes gets left out of the conversation in favor of sites like Facebook and Twitter.

But don't be fooled: YouTube has a lot going for it. Although Facebook might exist the largest social networking site, YouTube has the second greatest attain later on Facebook in terms of general usage. It'south also the second biggest search engine behind its parent company, Google.

And in that location are a ton of cool things you lot can do with YouTube that you might not know about, whether you use YouTube to watch videos, postal service them, or both. For example, did yous know YouTube has its ain virtual reality (VR) setting to view whatever video in 360 degrees? Or that you can create a YouTube time link that brings viewers to a specific moment in the video?  → Free Templates: How to Use YouTube for Business [Download Now]

Mind-blowing stuff, people. To aid you brand the most out of the notwithstanding very pop platform, we've put together a listing of 20 of the lesser-known hacks, tips, and features YouTube has to offering.

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xx YouTube Tricks, Hacks, and Features Y'all'll Want to Know About

ane. You tin turn any YouTube video into a GIF using the URL.

Everyone loves GIFs, but knowing how to make them isn't common knowledge. Well, information technology should be, because all it takes is a little YouTube URL fob.

To create a GIF from a YouTube video: Select a video to lookout man on YouTube and notice the URL at the summit of your browser. Add the word "gif" correct before the domain name so it reads, "www.gifyoutube.com/[your-video-tag]."

This volition bring you to gifs.com, with your video already uploaded and ready for editing. Hither, you'll find a carte du jour of options to the left-hand side with a timeline bar along the bottom of your video. You can fix the GIF duration, ingather its frame, add captions, and more.

YouTube trick to create a GIF from a video.

Click "Create GIF" on the top-right and it'll prompt you for a GIF title and prepare of tags. And then click "Next," and y'all have a handy landing folio from which to share your newly minted GIF. Keep in mind you lot tin simply download this GIF to an offline file by signing up with gifs.com.

two. You can create a link that starts a YouTube video at a certain time.

Ever wanted to send someone a YouTube video, but bespeak them to a specific moment? Permit's say yous're trying to recruit your friends to learn the dance in Justin Bieber'south "Sad" music video with y'all.

Instead of sending your friends the general YouTube link and instructing them to fast-forwards to the 0:l infinitesimal mark, you tin can really send them a specific YouTube time link that starts the video at whichever time you choose. Click here to see what I mean.

Alright, here's how to exercise it:

To create a link that starts a YouTube video at a certain fourth dimension: Open up up the video and click "Share" to the far right of the video title. Then, in the window of options that appears, check the box adjacent to "Kickoff at:" and type in the time (in hours:minutes:seconds) yous desire. Alternatively, you tin can pause the video at the time you want information technology to start and that field will autofill.

YouTube time link of a Justin Bieber video.

After a few moments, you'll run across a tag add itself to the terminate of the generic YouTube link (in this example, ?t=50s). Just copy that link and paste it wherever you'd like.

It'south worth noting that you can't embed a video and then it starts at a certain time; you tin can't only link to it.

3. You tin can easily see the written transcripts of people'south videos.

Did yous know YouTube automatically generates a written transcript for every single video uploaded to its website? That'southward right -- and anyone has admission to that transcript unless the user manually hides it from viewers.

I can recall of a number of different situations where video transcripts tin come in handy. For case, perhaps you want to write downwardly a quote from a video, but the tedium of pausing-and-typing, pausing-and-typing would drive yous upward a wall. Or perhaps you need to find a specific section of a video, merely don't want to rewatch the whole thing to find it. With a transcript in hand, you lot can find data similar this without doing it all past paw.

To meet a video's transcript: Open the video in YouTube and press the "More" tab underneath the video title. Choose "Transcript" from the drop-down menu.

YouTube's more tag to find the video transcript.

(If you aren't seeing this choice, it's because the user chose to hide the transcript.)

This transcript will appear as a new module in the aforementioned window. In many cases, the user who uploaded the video will not have gone dorsum and manually polished the transcript, so it won't be perfect. But information technology'll certainly relieve you some fourth dimension and pain.

Example of a YouTube transcript.

4. You can help your video get found in search by editing or uploading a transcript.

Both YouTube and its parent visitor Google await at a number of factors when ranking videos in search to make up one's mind what your video is well-nigh, and your transcript is one of them. (An even bigger ranking factor is your video's description, which is why Digital Marketing Consultant Ryan Stewart suggests that you actually paste your transcript right into the description box, as well.)

To add a transcript to your video: Open the video on YouTube, and you lot'll see a row of icons just below the play button. Click the icon on the far right for "Subtitles/CC." (CC stands for "Airtight Captions.)

YouTube closed captioning (CC).

Prepare your linguistic communication if you haven't already. Then, y'all'll then exist prompted to choose among three different ways to add subtitles or closed captions to your video ...

  1. Upload a pre-written text transcript or a timed subtitles file. (Learn more near the file types you tin upload and more here.)
  2. Paste in a full transcript of the video, wherein subtitle timings will exist set automatically.
  3. Type them in as y'all watch the video.

The folks at YouTube have washed some great things to make that third option (typing as you scout) equally painless every bit possible. For case, if you check a box next to "Break video while typing," it'll make the whole procedure a lot faster. Hither's a GIF showing that in action:

YouTube transcribe page.

Learn more about optimizing your YouTube videos for search in the beneath video.

5. You tin can utilize YouTube to easily get complimentary transcriptions of your videos and sound files.

This is the terminal one about transcripts, I promise -- only I'll bet y'all never thought nigh them this way. As y'all know from #3, YouTube automatically adds a transcript to every video. But if you're looking for a one-off transcription of an sound or video file and don't desire to pay for a service, YouTube's built-in captioning organisation isn't a bad place to first. You tin can ever clean it upward later.

To go an automated transcription for a video: Merely upload your video to YouTube, open it on YouTube'southward website, press the "More than" tab underneath the video title, and cull "Transcript" from the driblet-down menu. The transcript will announced as a new module in the aforementioned window. If y'all want to clean it up, follow the steps outlined in #3 for a user-friendly experience.

To get an automated transcription for an sound file: You lot'll need to upload your audio recording to YouTube using a service like TunesToTube. It'll take anywhere between ii–30 minutes for YouTube to upload information technology. And then, follow the instructions for getting an automatic transcription for a video, outlined in a higher place.

6. Yous tin create, share, and collaborate on video playlists.

Just similar on your other favorite media sharing sites like Spotify and iTunes, you can create a "playlist" on YouTube -- which is really merely a place to store and organize the videos (your own and others'). You lot can continue playlists private, brand them public, or even share them straight with others.

Playlists are useful for many different types of users, from an individual collecting cooking videos for their upcoming dinner party to a brand that's segmenting its YouTube video content by topic. For case, Tasty'southward YouTube playlists break upward recipes by meal blazon, making it easier for people to browse and find what they're looking for:

Tasty playlists example.

To create a playlist on desktop: Become to your Playlists folio by clicking here or clicking your account icon in the top right, choosing "Creator Studio," clicking "Video Manager" on the left, and choosing "Playlists." Then, click "New Playlist" on the summit right and choose whether you lot'd like to keep it individual or make it public.

YouTube create new playlist page.

To create a playlist on mobile: Click here for instructions explaining how to create new playlists using your iOS or Android mobile devices.

To add a video to a playlist: If you're adding a video to a playlist while yous're watching it, click the "Add to" icon below the video championship and check the box next to the playlist to which you'd like to add information technology.

Add to button for creating YouTube playlists.

If you want to add a video to a playlist correct from your Playlists page, only click "Add Video" and either paste in a video URL, cull a video from your uploads, or search for a video on YouTube. Once you lot find the video y'all want to add, select the "Add to" menu from that video and add it to the playlist.

Your friends can contribute to your playlists, also. All yous take to exercise is turn on the ability to collaborate on playlists. Once you plough information technology on, anyone you share a playlist link with tin add videos to that playlist. (They tin also remove any videos they've added, also.)

To add friends to a playlist: Become to your Playlists page again and open the playlist you want to interact on. Click "Playlist Settings" and cull the "Collaborate" tag. Toggle on the setting that allows collaborators to add videos to the playlist, and from at that place, you can transport them a link where they tin add together videos to the playlist.

YouTube collaborate playlist setting.

In one case your friend's been invited to a playlist, they'll exist able to add new videos to it and remove videos they've added in the by. They just accept to follow some on-screen instructions showtime to confirm they desire to exist a correspondent and to save the playlist to their own account.

When you add a video to a playlist you're collaborating on, your proper name will appear next to the video in the playlist, and anybody who's been invited to interact on that playlist volition go a notification that a new video has been added.

(To learn more about how to manage contributors, stop accepting contributions to a playlist, and so on, read this YouTube Support page.)

vii. You can save videos to scout later.

Ever seen YouTube videos y'all wished you could bookmark for later? Maybe you lot aren't able to plough the audio on at the moment, or perhaps you just don't have fourth dimension to watch it. Well, YouTube took a page out of Facebook'southward ... volume ... by calculation something very similar to Facebook's "Save for After" feature. On YouTube, you tin save videos to a "Spotter Later" playlist to access whenever you want.

The "Watch Later" playlist operates merely like a normal playlist, and so the instructions are identical to the previous step (except you can't invite others to collaborate on your "Picket Afterwards" playlist).

To add together a video to your "Lookout man Later" playlist: Open the video on YouTube and click the "Add to" icon below the video title and check the box next to the playlist you'd like to add it to, just like yous did in the previous step. The steps are very similar on mobile, but click here if yous want the full instructions from YouTube'southward Support folio.

To access those videos: Merely go to your YouTube homepage and choose "Watch Subsequently" from the menu on the upper left-paw side of your screen.

YouTube watch later option.

From in that location, you tin scout the videos you were saving, too every bit easily remove videos from that list that yous've already watched.

eight. You lot can create your own custom YouTube URL.

Want to give people an easy-to-remember web address to get to your YouTube channel? Y'all tin can actually create a custom URL, which you lot can base on things similar your display name, your YouTube username, whatsoever current vanity URLs that you have, or the name of your linked website. HubSpot'due south, for instance, is https://www.youtube.com/hubspot.

Important Note: Before you exercise this, make certain you're positive this is the custom URL y'all want -- because once it's canonical, you can't request to change it, nor can you transfer it to someone else. Go on in mind that it'll be linked to both your YouTube channel and your Google+ identity, also.

Unfortunately, not everyone'southward eligible for a custom URL. To become one, you have to have 100 or more subscribers, be at least 30 days former, accept an uploaded photo as your channel icon, and have uploaded channel art. If that sounds like you, keep reading.

To merits your custom URL: Open up up your YouTube account settings and click "Advanced" in your name section.

overview_youtube_screenshot.png

If you're eligible for a custom URL, you lot'll be prompted to merits yours by clicking a link.

advanced_youtube_settings.png

Select the box adjacent to "I agree to the Terms of Service." Then, once you're absolutely sure information technology's the URL y'all want (since you can't ever change it), click "Alter URL" to go far final.

ix. You lot tin can add an cease screen or cards to promote content.

In 2008, YouTube began assuasive clickable links YouTube chosen "annotations" that you could insert into your videos. These annotations worked kind of like call-to-action buttons for directing people to subscribe to your aqueduct, see merchandise or a fundraising campaign, visit some other resource to larn more, and and so on.

In order to make them more natural parts of the viewing experience, YouTube has replaced annotations with terminate screens, where you lot can brandish more visually pleasing call-to-action cards in the last xxx seconds of your content.

How to Add an End Screen

Do your favorite YouTube creators have a fancy closing screen that encourages you to keep watching their videos? For example, hither's one from Saturday Night Live:

SNL_youtube_end screen.png

You lot can create a customized end screen, too. They assistance go on viewers on your aqueduct by suggesting other videos and sites they tin can check out. Here's how to exercise it:

Navigate to your Video Manager, tap "Edit," and select "End screen & Annotations" from the drib-down carte du jour:

YouTube end screen call to action.

From there, you're taken to the Terminate screen creator studio, where you can play around with unlike templates and background to determine how you desire your terminate screen to appear. Then, click the "Add chemical element" menu to determine where you want to send viewers from your end screen.

addelement_youtube.png

Any YouTube creators tin can add an cease screen to customize their channels. Hither'south an explainer commodity with more details and inspirational ideas.

How to Add a Card

You can use cards to advertise products used in your videos or links on your website you want to market place on YouTube. If viewers tap the "i" in the upper-right paw corner of a video, the cards expand, as in the example below:

To add a card to a YouTube video, head to your Video Manager, tap "Edit," and select "Cards" from the drop-down menu.

And then, choose where in the video you want cards to appear, and tap the "Add card" drop-down menu to choose what you want the bill of fare to promote. From there, customize the content that will announced to viewers when they tap the "i" while viewing your video:

add_card_youtube.png

x. YouTube has a big library of loftier-quality, royalty-complimentary sound effects and music y'all tin browse and download.

Want to add some cool sound furnishings or music to your YouTube video (or any video)? YouTube is there for you lot. It has a whole library of high-quality, 320kbps audio tracks and sound furnishings that you can download royalty-costless and add to your videos. (Or listen to in your free fourth dimension. Nosotros won't judge.)

To add music or sound effects to your video: Open YouTube's Audio Library by clicking here or opening your Creator Studio, clicking "Create" in the menu on the left-manus side, and choosing "Sound Library."

At present, the fun begins. Past default, it'll starting time you on the "Sound furnishings" tab. Here, you tin can search sounds using the search bar, similar I did in the screenshot below for motorcycle sounds.

youtube-audio-library.png

You can also toggle by category (everything from human being voices to atmospheric condition sounds) or scroll through favorites that you've starred in the past. For easy access in the hereafter, select the star to add the track to your Favorites. The confined next to the songs show how popular a track is.

If you switch over to the "Music" bar, you lot can browse through all of its royalty-costless music. You won't find the Beatles in here, only you lot will find some skillful stuff -- similar suspenseful music, uplifting music, holiday music, jazz, and more than. Instead of toggling by category, you tin toggle past genre, mood, instrument, duration, and so on.

(Notation: Some of the music files in in that location may have additional attribution requirements y'all have to follow, merely those are pretty clearly laid out on a song-by-song-basis. You lot tin can learn more than on YouTube's Support folio hither.)

One time you lot've found a rails you like, click the arrow to download it and it'll download directly to your computer as an MP3 file. Then, yous tin do whatever you lot want with it.

If you want to source sounds for your videos outside of YouTube, you'll just take to make sure to you're following all the rules for sourcing them. Refer to this YouTube Support folio for best practices for sourcing audio, and this one to acquire YouTube'southward music policies.

11. Add adjustments and creative effects with YouTube Enhancements.

YouTube has faded a number of features it experimented with at 1 fourth dimension -- including annotations and a not-so-pop slideshow creator -- but one editing tool that remains quite handy is Enhancements. Nine effects y'all'd ordinarily find on third-party video editing software, you lot can now have advantage of natively through YouTube:

  • Auto-gear up lighting and color
  • Stabilize shaky photographic camera motions
  • Employ slow movement
  • Utilize time lapse
  • Trim out parts of your video
  • Rotate the view
  • Apply filters
  • Custom blurring
  • Blur faces

To make enhancements to an existing video: Click into your Video Managing director and find a video you'd like to edit. Select the drop-down icon next to "Edit" to the right of the video, and select "Enhancements."

YouTube enhancements and effects feature.

YouTube filters and other enhancements.

Images via filmora

If you're editing on a calculator, this push button volition open all nine tools to the right of your video, where you can add various fixes, filters, and blurring effects and see how they change the terminal product in real time.

Note that not all enhancements are available on mobile devices. On Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, y'all can only trim, add together music, and utilise filters. Read this article to learn more nearly YouTube enhancements.

12. Play YouTube videos in the background on mobile devices.

Sometimes, your ain music playlist just isn't cutting it. Or perhaps you want to listen to your favorite artist'south performance at an awards prove.

Either way, if you've tried listening to music on YouTube via your mobile device, you may have noticed one thing: You tin't navigate out of the app. You take to keep YouTube open, and you tin't apply your phone for annihilation else, in order to mind to something on YouTube. Kind of frustrating if you're trying to multitask on your commute dwelling, right?

Now, there are hacks so you tin listen to YouTube content in the background while still using your mobile device. Here's what you do:

How to Watch YouTube Videos in the Background: iOS

Open Safari on your mobile device, and navigate to a video yous desire to watch on https://www.youtube.com. Start playing the video you want to mind to, then tap the Dwelling push button to close out of Safari. (I chose Katy Perry.)

youtube_katy1.png

So, swipe up on your home screen to reveal the Activeness Middle.

And then, swipe left to reveal the 2d screen on your Action Center. The details of the video you selected on YouTube should appear, and from there, simply tap Play to keep jamming.

youtube_katy2.0.png

youtube_katy2.png

How to Watch YouTube Videos in the Background: Android

Launch Firefox or Chrome on your mobile device, and navigate to a video you want to play on https://www.youtube.com. So, tap the "Settings" carte du jour in the upper right-manus corner (the ellipses) and select "Request Desktop Site."

turn-to-desktop-android1-1200x800-c.jpg

Image via DigitalTrends

Then, start playing the video on YouTube, and tap the Dwelling button to render to your abode screen. The sound will keep playing in the background as you lot use other apps.

13. You tin can alive stream videos to YouTube.

Live streaming video has been a large topic of conversation for the by few years. Information technology's seen massive growth, peculiarly in the past few years with the advent of Twitter's Periscope, Facebook Alive, and Instagram live videos.

Learning how to become live on YouTube is a niggling more circuitous (and confusing) than live streaming using similar platforms. On YouTube's easier streaming selection, there's no simple "start" button; instead, you actually have to download encoding software and set it up to use live streaming at all. YouTube has identified xiii+ encoders that are Live Verified.

If you're streaming a live issue, though, all you demand is a webcam. We'll go to that in a second.

Live Stream From Your Desktop Computer

Log in to YouTube and click the "Upload" button at the top-correct of your screen. Normally, this is where you'd upload a pre-existing video -- but instead, you'll want to notice the "Live Streaming" module on the right-paw side of your screen. Click "Get Started" in that module.

youtube_features_live_streaming.png

Earlier you go alive, YouTube volition first confirm that your channel is verified and that you have no live stream restrictions in the last 90 days. Once that's all fix, you lot have two options for streaming: "Stream now" and "Alive Events."

Stream Now

Stream Now is the simpler, quicker option for live streaming, which is why it'south YouTube'southward default for live streaming. You'll see a fancy dashboard similar the one below when yous choose "Alive Streaming" on the left-mitt Creator Studio menu:

youtube_livestream dashboard.png

Over again, you'll discover there's no "outset" button on the dashboard. This is where you lot'll demand to open your encoder and start and cease your streaming from there. Here'south YouTube's Alive Streaming FAQ page for more detailed information.

Live Events

Alive Events gives you a lot more control over the live stream. Yous can preview it earlier it goes live, it'll requite you backup redundancy streams, and you tin can start and stop the stream when you want.

Cull "Live Events" from your live streaming dashboard once you lot've enabled it. Here's what the events dashboard looks like, and you can acquire more about it here.

youtube-live-event.png

When y'all terminate streaming, we'll automatically upload an archive of your live stream to your channel. Note that your completed live stream videos are automatically made public on your channel past default every bit soon as y'all're washed recording. To make them disappear from the public eye once y'all're done, you can select "Make archive private when complete" in the "Stream Options" section of your live dashboard.

Live Stream From Your Mobile Device

YouTube has likewise rolled out alive streaming from mobile devices for YouTube creators with 10,000 or more subscribers (as of the date of this posting -- that volition be available to all creators shortly, according to YouTube's blog post).

Live streaming is more than intuitive from mobile devices than on desktop computers. Qualified creators can simply open their YouTube app on mobile, tap the camera icon at the top of the screen, and choose "Go Live."

From there, creators can enter details about the circulate before immediately recording live for their subscribers, as shown below:

CameoFlow-1.gif

Image via YouTube

For more than instruction on how to become live on YouTube across devices, YouTube published a Help commodity here. Desire to meet what alive videos others are recording on YouTube? You tin scan pop YouTube videos that are live right now by clicking here.

14. You can upload and watch 360-degree videos (live and pre-recorded) -- and in VR.

YouTube first announced its support for 360-degree videos back in March 2015, and it was a total novelty -- non to mention a game-changer. Since and then, brands, athletes, and other users take created some awesome 360-caste content, like this video from Samsung:

As you lot can run across, the experience every bit a viewer is really, really cool. On desktop, you can click effectually the video to see all the dissimilar angles while the video plays. On mobile, it's fifty-fifty cooler: You tin can move your photographic camera effectually to change the angle. You can browse the trending 360-degree and VR videos here.

How to Create a 360-degree Video on YouTube

For this, yous'll need some serious equipment. Cameras with 360-degree capability that are compatible with YouTube are listed here on YouTube's Support folio, forth with how to create and upload a 360-degree video file.

What about alive video in 360 degrees? That announcement would come a year later the get-go 1, in April 2016 -- the very same week Facebook announced its ain pattern for a 360-caste camera. Luckily for the folks at YouTube, information technology shell Facebook past supporting both alive video and 360-degree footage all at once.

How to Sentinel Any YouTube Video in VR

The Verge chosen 360 live-streamed videos "the gateway drug to virtual reality" for YouTube. Other than the YouTube website or app, you don't need whatever fancy equipment to be able to watch a 360-caste live video and feel like you lot're basically in that location.

That doesn't mean a headset isn't an choice -- and an awesome ane at that, since YouTube released its Cardboard feature. Cardboard is available on any YouTube video you lot watch or upload, and works with Google Cardboard (an bodily VR headset past Google) and several other VR headsets available today.

To apply Paper-thin while watching a YouTube video via mobile: Select any video in your YouTube mobile app, and then tap the three dots in the upper-right hand corner of the video. In the driblet-down, select "View in Cardboard." You may already see this option visible in the bottom-correct of 360-degree videos.

youtube_features_view_cardboard.png

This will prompt you to connect your mobile device to a uniform VR device. Once you exercise, gear up for a stellar experience, and just imagine what this could mean for the content with which you populate your own YouTube channel.

15. YouTube ads target you based on an algorithm similar to Google and Facebook.

How does the YouTube algorithm decide which ads play on the videos you watch?

Turns out information technology works a lot like Google and Facebook ads practise. Like on other free sites, the advertisers assist fund the YouTube experience in render for exposure to ads. You'll see sure ads over others because of your demographic groups, your interests (which is judged in part past what you search on Google and YouTube) and the content y'all've viewed before, including whether or non you lot've interacted with the advertiser'due south videos, ads, or YouTube channel.

YouTube's algorithms besides endeavour to make certain people aren't overloaded with ads while watching videos -- so it actually sometimes won't evidence ads on monetizable videos, even when in that location'due south a demographic match.

Here are the five advertising formats you can expect to encounter on YouTube, and how they piece of work:

A. Display ads, which prove upward next to the video and only appear only on desktop and laptop computers. The advertiser gets paid when you lot see or click on the advertisement, depending on their option.

youtube-display-ads.png

Image via YouTube's Creator Academy

B. Overlay ads, which announced beyond the bottom xx% of the video window and currently only appears just on desktop and laptop computers. You can X out of the advertizing at any fourth dimension.

youtube-overlay-ads.png

Image via YouTube'south Creator University

C. TrueView in-stream, skippable video ads, which are nigh common ads. These are the ones you can skip after watching for five seconds. Advertisers can put it before, during (yikes!), or after the video plays, and they get paid only if you watch at to the lowest degree 30 seconds of the clip or to the terminate of the video ad -- whichever comes starting time.

youtube-in-stream-skippable-video-ads.png

Image via YouTube's Creator Academy

D. Non-skippable video ads, which are those longer, 15-or-more than-second ads you lot come across before plays and can't skip afterwards any catamenia of time, no matter how much you shout at your screen.

youtube-non-skippable-video-ads-2.png

Paradigm via YouTube's Creator Academy

Due east. Midroll ads, which are ads that are only bachelor for videos over fifteen minutes long that are spaced within the video like Telly commercials. You need to lookout the advertizement before continuing through the video. How the advertiser gets paid depends on the type of ad: If the midroll is a TrueView advert, you'd have to watch 30 seconds of the end or the entire ad -- whichever is shorter. If it's a CPM-based advertizement, y'all accept to sentry the entire ad no thing how long it is.

youtube-midroll-ads-1.png

Prototype Credit: YouTube'south Creator Academy

F. Bumper ads, which are short, non-skippable ads up to six seconds long that play earlier the video the viewer has selected. Bumper ads are optimized for mobile devices and must be watched in their entirety before viewers can progress to the video they want to view.

bumperad_youtube.png

sixteen. Yous can remove ads from YouTube videos (and watch videos offline) for 10 bucks a calendar month.

Video ads are the reason you lot tin picket videos for free on YouTube. Information technology's a fact many of the states have come to accept. Merely with YouTube's subscription service YouTube Red, that doesn't necessarily take to be true anymore.

For $9.99 a calendar month, you can watch YouTube videos ... without any ads. And, in addition to ad-free videos, y'all tin relieve videos on your mobile device and watch them in the background and/or offline, and you lot tin apply YouTube's Music App (on iOS and Android) in the background, offline, and/or on sound way. This is not a drill.

You'd call up the lure of ad-gratis videos would have caused more of an uproar since its launch in tardily 2015, especially given YouTube'south domination in the music space. Surprisingly, I haven't heard much noise most it. Just YouTube hasn't disclosed subscriber numbers (the service reportedly has around one.5 one thousand thousand subscribers) so it's difficult to tell how well it'southward doing. Either way, information technology's adept to know nearly -- especially if you lot like collecting songs and music videos like I practice, but don't similar when they go broken up by ads.

17. Yous can use Google Trends to explore and compare popular YouTube search terms over time.

You might already apply Google Trends to look at the popularity of specific search terms over time. (It can be a great marketing tool for making smarter keyword choices, for instance.) Just did you know yous can apply it to compare the popularity of YouTube search queries, specifically?

All you take to do is open Google Trends and type a search term into the "Explore topics" search bar at the top. Once that page opens up, click on "Web Search" to open a drib-down menu, and choose "YouTube Search" so it filters by YouTube searches specifically.

youtube_googletrends.png

You might notice that, for some search terms, the search trends are very different on Google (to a higher place) than on YouTube (beneath).

youtube_googletrends_2.png

18. There'southward a 'safer' version of YouTube available for your kids.

Any parent will tell y'all how scary it is for their kids to theoretically have access to everything public on the net. But for your younger kids, there are ways to adjourn that access and have more control of what they're watching and finding -- including a kids' version of YouTube called YouTube Kids.

The folks at YouTube call YouTube Kids "a safer version of YouTube." Information technology'due south non a wide-open up library of online videos like YouTube is; instead, it uses filters powered by algorithms to select videos from YouTube that are condom for kids to watch. It'due south also totally free, thanks to ads (which are regulated as advisedly as possible).

Yous can either turn the search feature on or off, depending on whether you're cool with your kids searching for videos themselves -- or if you'd rather limit them to a certain fix of videos selected past the app, forth with those the app recommends based on what they've watched already. You can set a timer to limit how much fourth dimension a kid spends on the app, which is music to many parents' ears.

The algorithm is darn good -- think, Google is YouTube's parent company -- but, as it warns in its parents' guide, "no algorithm is perfect."

xix. You lot can now articulate your YouTube History.

Y'all might eventually want to delete items from your YouTube search or watch history. YouTube lets yous completely clear your history, pause your history and so information technology stops recording what yous search for and picket from that signal forward, or get through your history and delete certain videos.

To delete your history on your desktop or mobile device: Navigate to the "Watch History" carte du jour. Hither's where it lives on your desktop browser homepage and in your mobile app, respectively:

youtube_history.png

youtube_library.png youtube_history_mobile.png

From there, you tin can "clear all watch history" (permanently delete the record of everything yous've watched), "pause lookout history" (stop recording the videos you lookout man going forward), or individually remove videos from your history by tapping the X or ellipses next to videos. Here's what it looks like on desktop and on mobile, beneath:

youtube_features_clear_watch_history.png

youtube_delete_history_mobile.png

YouTube published a Assistance article if you lot need more than instruction for deleting items from your YouTube watch history, also.

twenty. You can larn about YouTube'due south copyrights terms from a cast of ridiculous puppets.

Made it this far? Here'due south a little reward: YouTube'due south "Copyrights Basics" FAQ page, which is, fittingly a YouTube video -- and features a pretty colorful bandage of characters. It's actually super informative, and it looks similar YouTube's video team had a lot of fun making it.

My favorite line is probably, "You lot know in that location are links on this webpage, right? You lot don't accept to watch this." Although the chorus of gorilla puppets was pretty great, too.

Savor.

Nosotros hope we've opened your eyes to some of the more crawly YouTube hacks, tips, and features out there that you may not have known about. At present log on to YouTube and practise some exploring yourself. The platform certainly isn't going anywhere.

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Originally published October 26, 2020 seven:00:00 AM, updated July 26 2021