Get more out of YouTube: 17 helpful tips, tricks, and tweaks

Some people can hardly remember the time before YouTube. The video host was founded in 2005, and year after year the platform got bigger and bigger. As early as 2006, around 100 million clips were viewed there every day. By 2010, this figure had risen to more than two billion per day. Today, users upload around 500 hours of video material every minute.

No wonder, really. The largely free service offers almost endless entertainment, how-to and tutorial videos, music, and much more. Of course, users also have the opportunity to upload videos themselves, collect followers, and earn money with them.

However, even passionate users often don’t know all the tricks for an optimal streaming experience. You can find such tips in this article: How to use YouTube perfectly on your PC, smartphone, smart TV and co.

Further reading: I block every ad on YouTube and I’m not ashamed to admit it

General YouTube tips

These settings and tricks promise a better YouTube experience across all devices.

Create GIFs from YouTube videos

Did you know that you can create a compact GIF from a YouTube video with just a few clicks or swipe gestures? It’s even free: Visit the GIF generator at makeagif.com and insert the YouTube link to the relevant video. You can then specify the desired output quality (maximum medium for free use), determine the GIF length, and adjust the playback speed.

Note: Free users must tolerate watermarks and a lower resolution.

Use dark mode

A small setting with a big effect. Dark mode makes YouTube more enjoyable, and not just in the late evening hours. It is particularly pleasant and useful to switch to dark mode when using the app for long periods of time, as it reduces eye fatigue and saves battery power.

On the PC, we simply click on our profile picture and then on “Display.” Here you can now select the dark design. Dark mode is also available in the official YouTube app (Settings->General->Display).

Variable playback speed

In the playback options (gear icon), you can gradually adjust the playback speed of YouTube videos. This allows clips to be played back at twice the speed or up to four times slower. This is super handy if a YouTuber doesn’t want to get to the point in their videos, or if you want to watch a step in a tutorial in detail.

Show subtitles

If you’ve ever watched a video from the American South or a Seitenbacher advert, you’ll know the problem. Sometimes you can’t understand a word. However, the solution to such language barriers is easy to find, you can simply activate subtitles in many YouTube videos. The button for this can be found directly next to the small cogwheel below the video when using the browser, for example.

More fun with YouTube on your smartphone or tablet

These tricks and tips make YouTube even more fun on mobile devices.

Play YouTube videos in the background on your mobile device (with Android or iOS)

Foundry

There is one small restriction on YouTube that can be really annoying. If you watch videos on your smartphone where you are only interested in the audio track (such as music or radio plays), you always have to keep the display activated and play the video in the foreground. As soon as you switch to another tab or deactivate the display, the playback also stops–quite annoying.

The workaround for Android: A free plug-in is available for the Firefox mobile browser (Android | iOS): “Video playback in the background.” You can find this in the browser menu (three dots) and then under “Extensions” (see image).

It also works on iPhone: First, start the video in the browser and then switch to the desktop version of the website in the settings. (You can skip this step on the iPad). Now, leave the website using the iPhone’s home button and open the quick settings using the usual swipe gesture (top right corner). Here you can now simply restart the video with the play button, it will then play in the background and you can hear the sound normally, even if the display is off.

Tips and tricks for better YouTube on your PC

MP3 download, keyboard shortcuts, or editing playlists together. If you enjoy browsing YouTube on your PC, you should know these practical tricks:

Download YouTube music and save it locally as an MP3

Foundry

Even beyond YouTube Music, the classic video host has plenty of music to offer from all genres and pretty much every decade since the invention of the sound carrier. And although YouTube itself doesn’t like it that much, you can convert such tracks with various web services in no time at all and save them locally as MP3s. You can do this here, for example.

Use keyboard shortcuts

There are many practical keyboard shortcuts available for YouTube videos, which promise more convenient operation and can save a lot of time, especially for frequent viewers. Note: If the shortcuts do not work, click on the video once (this will bring the player back into focus).

Link to the exact playback position of a video

Foundry

You want to show a friend a funny moment in a YouTube video, but the clip is 15 minutes long? No problem. You can easily create a link to the exact position of the current playback. To do this, simply rewind to the point you want to link to and right-click on the video.

Then click on “Copy video URL at this point” in the small window. The link will then be copied to the clipboard and can be inserted at any time by right-clicking and pasting or by pressing CTRL V.

Edit playlists together with friends

Foundry

If you would like to allow friends or acquaintances to collaborate on your YouTube playlists, this is not a problem. First, open the playlist that you would like to share for editing. Note: If the list is not yet public, you still need to select/set this.

Now you can select the “Invite employees” function via the Share button and generate a link that you can then forward to contacts. Make sure that the “Edit together” and “Allow new collaborators” functions are activated in the window.

Play adverts 16 times faster with Chrome or Edge

Foundry

If you’re sometimes annoyed by adverts on YouTube, we can understand that: The provider regularly places intrusive adverts in front of us before a video and often in the middle of it. Added to this is YouTube’s increasingly rigid approach to ad blockers.

The solution (at least for Chrome users) is called “Ad Speedup – Skip Video Ads 16X Faster” and is available as a free extension for Chrome and Edge. It automatically plays ad sequences at 16x speed and skips them in no time at all.

Useful YouTube tips for your smart TV

Naturally, YouTube really comes into its own on the TV. The large display offers space for all the details and you can sink into the couch and relax while watching. These tips will make the video service even more fun on your Smart TV.

Show or hide subtitles

If you don’t know how to show or hide subtitles for YouTube on your Smart TV, it can be quite annoying. Fortunately, the function is very easy to access: Firstly, we pause the video and press the up button on the TV remote control. Here we now select the settings (usually on the far right; cogwheel symbol). In the following window, we can now select subtitles if they are available.

In case of playback problems: Use an Ethernet cable

This is not just a tip for YouTube, but a useful solution to problems when streaming is jerky or clips are slow to load (and also helps with problems with Netflix and the like). If you connect your smart TV to the internet via Wi-Fi, you sometimes have to deal with connection problems or slow data transfer, depending on the distance to the router.

The solution? Lay an Ethernet cable from the router to the Smart TV, then the full bandwidth and unclouded video enjoyment is available there.

Avoid adverts with YouTube Premium

Google doesn’t exactly make it easy for us to install ad blockers with the app for the Smart TV – after all, this contradicts the business model of the free service. The remedy is to switch to YouTube Premium. This currently costs $13.99 per month (for individuals), deactivates all adverts, and allows uncomplicated background playback and offline music.

More options: Stream to the TV via smartphone instead of the YouTube app

There are a few advantages to streaming YouTube to your TV using your smartphone. You can also display comments or post them yourself (writing only on your smartphone). You can read how to set up such a stream here.

For families: Activate parental control

To prevent children from watching inappropriate content on YouTube on the TV (of which there is plenty), you can filter such content directly in the app. To do this, first go to the app settings on the smart TV, search for the “Restricted mode” entry, and activate the function. The majority of content that is not suitable for children should then no longer be accessible via the TV.