2024-05-06 13:29:52
www.zdnet.com
Want to skip to the good part of YouTube videos? A new feature will let you do just that.
Called Jump Ahead, the feature has been in testing for a small portion of users. It’s now rolling out 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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When you select Jump Ahead, AI guesses what you’re trying to see. It analyzes the points where most other viewers jumped ahead and where they eventually started watching again and takes you to that point of interest. YouTube didn’t reveal exactly how the feature works, but it seems likely that the AI includes some watch data to help make that decision.
The feature joins an Ask AI feature that debuted on the site 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 on the Android app for now and only for selected English-language videos. Most likely, that means videos with a lot of views and data for the AI to use.
To use the Jump Ahead feature, you’ll first need to 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. When view time makes a difference in how much revenue a video generates, is a feature that lets the watcher easily cut down that time going to be a welcome one?