The YouTube app has hundreds of millions of fans out there who use it every day to watch videos, be it short or long.
There is no doubt that quite a number of these users would be up rejoicing if it were possible to jump short time spans when watching a long video on the YouTube app. Of course, one would argue that there is already a seek bar that is helpful when you want to jump backwards, for instance, 20 seconds, however, this feature gets less interesting to use when watching long videos of say, two or more hours.
Worry not, because the upcoming YouTube app is set to take care of this problem once and for all. The change has been coming for over a year now, with the search engine giant previously testing the rewind and fast forward features over a year ago. In fact, back then, this functionality made it to a number of YouTube app users out there, but Google never got to release it in the stable version for all users to enjoy it as well.
A few weeks ago, the same story resurfaced, bringing hope that Google had restarted the program. Apparently, the new YouTube app will allow users to double tap on the left or right side in order to rewind or fast forward 10 seconds of play. This functionality can now be found in the latest YouTube app version 11.47, but as before, this is only available for select users.
To save you a lot of hassle, it is advisable that you sit back and wait for the stable release of this app for all Android devices. As of now, the Google Play Store has version 11.45, but it shouldn’t be long before the update rolls out. If you can’t wait, there are a few steps you’ll need to follow in order to enable the feature on your phone.
For starters, you must install the latest YouTube app APK that can be downloaded from APK Mirror for free. For those already using this version (beta), you will have to clear the app’s data, something that will leave the app without any of your previous personal data, including login details and downloaded content. This can be done via the Apps Settings and while in there, find “YouTube>Storage>Clear data” and then hit OK. When done, launch the YouTube app and start playing any video. When you double-tap on either side of the video player, the video will skip by 10 seconds.
As noted earlier, you have the option of going through this hassle or simply sitting back and let Google do its work. The feature should be rolled out to the stable release at some point in future, but we don’t know when just yet.