PSA: Double Tap to Fast-Forward Rolling Out to YouTube App on Android

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Some of my biggest personal pet peeves with the official YouTube app is the inability to set the video playback speed (to plow through slowew instructional videos) and the inability to skip short sections of the video to avoid irrelevant information. Although you can use the seekbar to jump around, on longer videos showcasing something like game play, even small seekbar movements can jump through large sections of the video.

One remedy that people discovered a few months back involved enabling the “Switch Access” accessibility service. Once enabled, the YouTube app would display two additional buttons on both sides of the video that allow you to skip 10 seconds forwards/backwards.

However, for those of us who prefer not to enable needless Accessibility Services, we could not use these buttons. But it appears that a server side switch on the YouTube app (as found on version 11.49.55 for us) makes this happen.

As you can see in the video below, all you need to do is double tap to initiate fast forward/rewind for a 10 second skip.

This change is rolling out via a server side switch, so have some patience.We should note we have not found this feature enabled on later versions of YouTube, such as on version 12.01.54 of the YouTube app, so don’t expect to upgrade your YouTube app to gain this functionality. Though it wouldn’t hurt to be on the latest version anyways.

While a very small change, this will surely help a lot of content consumers navigate quicker through a video right to the juicy bits. It is also beneficial in case you missed out on some instruction and just need a short rewind. Here’s hoping Google also implements speed controls on the mobile app.

Have you received this functionality? Let us know in the comments below!