YOUTUBE TRICKS YOU SHOULD ABOUT KNOW THIS

YOUTUBE TRICKS YOU SHOULD ABOUT KNOW THIS

Though YouTube remains the premier video site on the web, you probably don’t think much about customizing it. But whether you’re a casual user or watch online videos every day, there are all sorts of ways to tweak YouTube.

A major category of these are special YouTube URLs. Let’s look at some YouTube URL tricks to help you get more out of the service, like turning videos into GIFs.

1. Link to Any Part of a Video

YouTube Copy URL Current Time

Typically, when you copy a link to a YouTube video, it starts from the beginning. If you want to show someone just a bit of a video or skip a lengthy intro, you can append a time stamp to the URL to start it at that time.

You can do this in a couple of ways. By manually adding &t=YmXXs to the end of a video URL, you’ll set it to start Y minutes and XX seconds into the video. You can omit minutes, or use only seconds, such as 90s for a minute and a half. 

If you don’t want to use the manual method, pause the video at the time you’d like to share it at, then right-click and choose Copy video URL at current time. And there are plenty more YouTube sharing tricks worth knowing.

2. Loop a Video Infinitely

YouTube is a great place for listening to music, especially video game soundtracks for studying. If you’re into a song and want to listen to it over and over, you can add repeater after youtube in the URL. This will open the video at YouTubeRepeater.com, which loops the video for you.


You can tweak the playback using the options below the video if you want to start or end at different points. To do this without changing the URL, just right-click any YouTube video and toggle Loop on.

3. Bypass Age Restrictions

YouTube Age Warning

YouTube has age restrictions on certain videos that are flagged as containing mature content. Whether you don’t have a YouTube account or don’t feel like signing in to watch one, you can perform a little trick to bypass the sign-in.

4. Skip a Certain Amount of the Intro

Similar to the trick that lets you pick the start time, you can also choose to skip a certain number of seconds at the start of the video. You can’t specify minutes with this one, so use 90 (seconds) for a minute and a half.


This is similar to the timing one but is a bit faster to type and doesn’t require you to remember a certain time stamp.

5. Claim a Custom YouTube Channel URL

YouTube Custom Channel URL

If you have your own YouTube channel and meet certain requirements, you can set a vanity URL for your page. This is much easier to remember than the default random string of characters, so it’s worth doing for easier linking.

To get a custom URL, your channel needs to meet the following criteria:

Have at least 100 subscribers
Be at least 30 days old
Have an uploaded profile photo and channel art
If you satisfy these, head to YouTube’s Advanced settings page by clicking the gear in the top-right, choosing Settings, and clicking Advanced settings on the left. Here under Channel settings, you’ll see the text You’re eligible for a custom URL if that’s the case. Click the link next to this and proceed through the steps to create a custom URL and confirm the terms of use.

Once your custom URL is set up, anyone can head to youtube.com/[YourCustomURL] to visit your channel. Note that you can only have one custom URL at a time. You can’t change it, but you’re allowed to remove your current URL and create a new one, if it’s available.

6. Check Out YouTube TV

YouTube TV Interface

YouTube TV is an interface designed for smart TVs and apps on consoles. It’s still YouTube, but with less clutter and a few shortcuts that are easier for remotes. You probably won’t want to make this your main YouTube interface, but it’s worth checking out for a cleaner look.


7. Jump Straight to Your Subscriptions

As hard as it tries, many times the suggestions offered by YouTube aren’t useful. Whether your recommendations are filled with strange content or the home page contains videos you don’t care about, you can set a better YouTube landing page.


This lets you see the newest videos from channels you subscribe to, so you don’t miss any of their new content. Thus, you’re in control of what you see instead of YouTube deciding for you.



8. Make a GIF from a Video

YouTube Create GIF

Found a YouTube video that has a GIF-worthy moment? You can easily create an animated GIF from any part of a video by adding gif before the YouTube link.

You’ll be brought to gifs.com, where you can add a variety of effects and crop the GIF to your liking. Once done, share the GIF to social networks with an easy link or download it for safekeeping.

Note that exceptionally long videos won’t work with this service.



Start Having Fun with YouTube

These tricks will let you get even more out of YouTube. Some are built into YouTube itself, while others rely on outside services. It’s possible that any of these could stop working in the future, so your mileage may vary as time passes.

For more like this, check out apps that bypass YouTube restrictions and the best tools to make YouTube even better.