YouTube is always trying out new features for its users, which they call experiments. The latest experimental feature is called Jump Ahead, which uses AI to skip to the “best” part of a YouTube video for you.
The new feature works in conjunction with the double tap feature already available in the YouTube app on Android or iOS, which lets you hop forward in a video in 10-second increments until you’ve reached the portion that interests you.
The Jump Ahead feature analyzes that user watch data and couples it with machine learning algorithms to automatically detect what it believes is the next “best” point in a video that a viewer may be interested in. It then offers a prompt to take you to that point via an onscreen Jump Ahead button.
YouTube says the Jump Ahead feature works for creators when watching their own videos, even if they aren’t currently subscribed to YouTube Premium. For the rest of us, Jump Ahead is currently being tested with YouTube Premium subscribers in the U.S. (It was previously available to a small group of Premium subscribers to test.) In addition to a YouTube Premium membership, you also need the Android version of the YouTube app. The feature is currently limited to English-language videos, so videos in other languages won’t work at this time.
Previously, YouTube introduced similar functionality in the form of a graph integrated into a video’s progress bar that shows you the “most replayed” parts of that video. Initially, the most replayed feature was similarly exclusive to YouTube Premium subscribers, so there’s always a chance that, if proven popular and effective, Jump Ahead could become an all-access option in the future. There’s no word as to when the feature will roll out more widely, but the experiment supposedly ends on June 1, so we will see what YouTube decides to do at that time. Last year, the company also tested, then removed, then reintroduced the option to watch any video in double speed by pressing and holding on the video player from within the YouTube app.
