YouTube Adds “Double Tap” Feature To Let Users Skip Ten Seconds Ahead On Mobile

The “small screens” of mobile devices give consumers the freedom to watch videos wherever they want, but one of their main drawbacks is a literal one — they are small. The lilliputian nature of mobile screens can cause trouble for viewers who want to skip to a specific point in a YouTube video. Accomplishing that feat used to require precise navigation on the YouTube app’s slider, where the size of human fingers often caused viewers to overshoot or undershoot their target time.

Now, there is an easier way to jump across videos on mobile devices. YouTube has introduced a feature that lets users of its app skip forward ten seconds at a time by double-tapping on their screens.

Mashable, which noted the update, likened it to the video skip function accomplished by pressing the arrow keys on the browser version of YouTube. A mobile double-tap skips ten seconds ahead, while triple- and quadruple-taps can skip 20 and 30 seconds, respectively. The outlets that have covered this new feature have agreed that executing those bigger skips requires quite a bit of digital dexterity (no pun intended).

The new skipping feature is included in version 12.03 of the YouTube app. Download that latest update, and your stubby fingers will never get in the way of your video navigation ever again.