Want to just skip to the good part in every YouTube video? A new feature will let you do just that.
YouTube has been testing Jump Ahead with a small portion of users, but is now rolling out the feature to all YouTube Premium subscribers who pay $13.99/month for features such as ad-free viewing, offline viewing, background play, and more.
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Jump Ahead uses AI to guess what you’re trying to watch. It analyzes the points where most other viewers jumped ahead and where they eventually started watching again. YouTube didn’t reveal exactly how the feature works, but it seems likely that the AI factors in some watch data to help make a call.
The feature follows the Ask AI feature that YouTube debuted last fall. Using Ask AI, viewers can get answers to questions about a video and receive recommendations for related videos without interrupting the video they’re watching.
YouTube notes that the Jump Ahead feature only works in the Android app for now and only for select English-language videos. Most likely, that means videos with a lot of views and data that the AI can use.
To use the Jump Ahead feature, opt in at the Google Labs page for YouTube, which you can find at www.youtube.com/new. After you’ve enabled the feature, double-tap to skip ahead as usual. When you do so, you’ll see the new button. Tap it, and the app will take you — hopefully — to the spot you’re looking for.
While this seems like a great addition for viewers, I wonder how creators will take this. Given that view time impacts how much revenue a video generates, are they going to welcome a feature that lets viewers easily cut down that time?
