When it comes to finding exactly the moment you want to see in a video, the search feature may or may not work depending on the streaming service you’re using. However, things have gotten a lot better on YouTube.
Released in October to celebrate YouTube’s 17th anniversary with Ambient Mode, the new Precise Seeking feature uses a thumbnail bar to help you find exactly the place you want to watch in a video. It has been tested on YouTube Premium since at least June.
The new feature is still rolling out to YouTube accounts, so if you don’t already have it on the mobile app or desktop player, you’ll get it soon. It doesn’t currently work on the mobile web player, so you’ll need an Android or iOS app if you’re watching videos on your phone.
A new way to scrub/search
Press and hold the scroll button (red dot) or anywhere else on the scroll bar, then slide up and release. The video will pause if it was playing, and you’ll see a new thin bar of thumbnails with a line in the middle indicating the frame you’re viewing or want to visit.
Tapping to the left or right of a row will jump back or jump forward five or ten seconds, and swiping through the thumbnails will give you fine control. Touching above the thumbnail bar or pressing the play button will resume or start playback.
The desktop experience is similar. Hover over the scroll bar to display a small preview thumbnail of the selected frame, then left-click and drag up to open a new thin scrolling thumbnail bar.
Another way to clean/search
Tap and hold anywhere on the video, on the scroll button (red dot), or anywhere on the scroll bar, then swipe left or right. You will see thumbnail thumbnail preview to help you. Release and it will play or stay paused.
If you don’t see the scroll bar, tap the video to display the player controls. In portrait mode, the scroll bar is always visible, as are the progress and buffer bars, but the scroll button is not visible.
In the desktop player, hover over the scroll bar to display a small preview thumbnail of the selected frame, then left-click to select that location.