In this post, we’ll be talking about a couple of these exciting new things that have just made their way onto the platform. And we’ll also take a look at some lesser-known features that you might not have heard of. Let’s jump right into it and take a look at some of those amazing YouTube features.
1. AR Beauty Tool
Augmented reality is making its way into everything these days. Most recently, Google released an AR feature called Live View on Google Maps. And now, the company has brought AR to YouTube as well. The feature has made its debut with this makeup tutorial video, and it allows you to try on different shades of lip color right within the app. If you want to try it out for yourself, open up the video in the YouTube app on your phone and then tap on the blue Try It On button. That will open up a Virtual Try On window. Tap on OK and the give the app permission to access your phone’s camera. You should now see your face with the lip color overlayed on your lips within the blank space you see in the attached screenshot. You can change the color by tapping on the different colored circles at the bottom or click a picture by tapping on the camera button. You can also buy the shade you like by tapping on the Shop button in the bottom right corner.
2. New Discover Suggestions
According to everysecond.io, over 80 hours of videos are uploaded on YouTube every 10 seconds. And while the YouTube algorithm does quite a bit in helping you discover new content that you might like, it still isn’t enough. Therefore, YouTube has introduced a new discover feature which gives more power to the user, allowing them to come across videos based on the topics they’re interested in. This new feature can be found right at the top of the YouTube app in the form of category-based tabs that contain videos on a particular topic or creator. Just tap on the topic you like, and you’ll see a list of trending videos about that. This new bar also appears right beneath the video you’re currently watching and helps you discover related videos. Isn’t that handy?
3. Check Time Watched
I’m sure most of you have spent countless hours watching videos on YouTube. But did you know you can see how much time you’ve spent on the platform? Now, you do. To check the time you’ve spent watching YouTube videos, tap on your profile picture in the top right corner to open up your Account page, and then select the Time watched option. In the following window, you’ll see stats based on your YouTube watch history across all YouTube properties except YouTube Music and YouTube TV. As you can see, I spend quite a lot of time on the platform; averaging at about 2 hours every day. How much time do you spend watching videos every day? Make sure to let us know in the comments section below. Of course, there are apps to fight the social media addiction.
4. Get Reminders to Take a Break
If you think you’re spending too much time on YouTube and would much rather utilize that time elsewhere, the platform has a feature to help you with that. You can find it within the Time watched feature under the Tools to manage your YouTube time section. When turned on, the Remind me to take a break feature essentially allows you to set up a reminder to stop yourself from binge-watching videos. Just tap on the toggle next to it, set up a Reminder frequency, and you’re all set. Now every time you cross the limit, YouTube will remind you to take a break.
5. Use Swipe Gestures to Navigate
YouTube has also rolled out a quality of life feature for iPhone users. That introduces new swipe gestures for YouTube on iOS, allowing you to quickly switch to the previous or next video with a simple swipe. You can swipe from right to left to move on to the next recommendation or swipe in the other direction to go back to the previous video. Pretty handy, right? If you’re an Android user, however, you won’t be able to make use of the feature just yet. It isn’t live in the Android version of the app, but according to an official blog post, it should make it to the app sometime soon.
YouTube Will Never Be the Same Again
So, did you know about any of these features already? If not, then you should go ahead and try them out right away. At the time of writing, the new AR feature is only available on a single video. So you’ll have to make do with trying on lipstick for now. But I’m sure more creators will start rolling out supported content as it gains some traction. Next up: Facing problems with YouTube on your phone? Check out the next article for some handy solutions that you should try.
