20 clever tricks for YouTube that no one knows about

Youtube is undoubtedly one of the best sites on the net. There are millions of people watching videos and movies on it at any moment. But there are plenty of tricks you can apply to make your viewing experience more enjoyable and more simple. We put together 20 of the best ones.

1. How to make GIFs

Just add the letters «GIF» at the start of the YouTube URL, like this:

You will be taken to the YouTube to GIF website, where you can set the length of the GIF you want to create and give it a title.

2. How to find your favourite artist’s page

Simply write # + the artist’s name (without spaces) in the search bar:

You can find full albums of any given artist in the Albums section.

3. How to find tracks for karaoke

Musixmatch is a free app for Chrome which provides subtitles for music videos. It contains the lyrics to more than seven million songs in 32 different languages.

4. How to find out what song is playing in a video

MooMa.sh can help you identify any song or melody playing in a YouTube video. All you have to do is copy and paste the link.

5. How to use Theatre Mode

If you click on the small rectangle in the lower right corner of the video, it will be displayed in ’theatre mode’.

6. How to use Autoplay

Toggle the Autoplay button to prevent the next video from starting automatically once the one you are currently watching has finished.

7. How to check the definition of a video

The Video Quality Report programme from Google allows you to check the quality of videos which your provider offers.

8. How to use the new YouTube layout

Go to youtube.com/testtube and select the Try out the redesigned YouTube player function. You’ll be able to test the new player design, which has a transparent status bar that lets you set any screen resolution you want.

9. How to watch YouTube on our TV

You can start a video on your smartphone or tablet and then watch it on a larger screen via a WiFi-enabled SMART TV.

To do this, open YouTube on your device, launch a video and then find your TV’s WiFi through the app. Your device should only be connected to that one Wi-Fi network. It normally finds it automatically, but it can be done manually as well.

10. How to share a video from a certain point

Press the control key and right click the mouse and select the second option to share a video to another website which starts at a point other than the beginning.

11. How to make YouTube safe for your kids

The YouTube Kids app for iOS and Android offers videos which are suitable for children to watch.

12. How to optimise YouTube for a slow connection

If a video is stuttering because of your slow connection go to youtube.com/account_playback and click on the second option.

13. How to quickly find a specific video you’re looking for

In order to find a specific video, you can add the following words to your search terms:

— “channel“ or ”playlist»;

— “HD“ for higher definition videos, or ”3D» for videos in 3D;

— add quotation marks and the plus and minus signs in order to get more refined search results.

14. How to turn a YouTube audio track into an MP3

Simply go to the Peggo website.

15. How to make your own video playlist

The site Solon can combine videos from YouTube and Vimeo, as well as audio files from SoundCloud, into one playlist.

16. How to watch a video in a ’floating’ window

Floating YouTube is an app for Chrome which lets you play a YouTube video in a window which ’floats’ above the rest of the screen, allowing you to get on with other things simultaneously.