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YouTube is adding “Key Moments”, which is essentially the ability to quickly navigate to important portions of a video. The new feature will be available in the video streaming platform’s app for smart TVs.
YouTuber Creators have been manually creating “Video Chapters” using YouTube Studio. Moving forward YouTube will allow viewers to skip straight to highlights in the video without needing Creators.
How does the “Key Moments” feature work?
YouTube Creators have been allowing their viewers to head straight over to the “juicy” parts of their videos with Video Chapters. These are essentially key markers denoted by a small gap in a YouTube video’s progress bar.
Similarly, the Key Moments feature will allow viewers to head over to the important or noteworthy moments in a video. In other words, viewers can watch the highlights by skipping major portions of a video.
Video Chapters is available for viewers who access YouTube from their smartphones or tablets. However, millions of viewers watch YouTube videos from their smart TVs.
Needless to say, the official YouTube app for smart TVs is way different than its smartphone/tablet counterpart. Unlike the web version, the YouTube app for smart TVs is a little cumbersome to operate using a remote.
The process of tapping or clicking to fast-forward the video on a smart TV takes a lot of time. The new Key Moments feature will allow users to quickly scroll the YouTube seek bar when watching videos on their smart TVs.
We know viewers love to watch YouTube in the living room, and we're continuing to innovate to make the experience on TV even better. Now you can easily access auto generated key moments from any video. Check it out the next time you watch YouTube on your TV… pic.twitter.com/qRTHw695aX
— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) April 2, 2024
Will YouTube offer the new feature on all platforms?
The Key Moments feature essentially draws from video statistics, and this process is automatic. In other words, there’s no human intervention. Creators have to manually create Chapters, but Key Moments is “auto-generated”.
Key Moments will add white dots on the red progress bar. This will indicate the availability and location of important bits of the video. Viewers can Tap left or right on their remote to see the carousel of thumbnails with accompanying captions. YouTube will also offer “Press up to view key moments” to quickly move between the labeled clips.
Needless to say, Key Moments will be useful for viewers who would otherwise have to manually scroll or skip through lengthy videos.
It appears YouTube isn’t restricting the feature to smart TVs. Key Moments will reportedly be available on YouTube’s main website as well. The feature will be accessible from the description section.
YouTube is unlikely to offer Key Moments in its smartphone app presumably because users can precisely scroll through videos by dragging their fingers.