Eric Zeman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- YouTube is testing a new AI feature that can skip to the best parts of videos.
- It combines user data and AI to predict where to skip.
- It’s currently only available to select YouTube Premium users in the US.
YouTube is testing out a new way to skip to the best parts of videos using AI, according to the YouTube Creator technical team.
The feature is being tested and is available only to select YouTube Premium users in the US for now. It utilizes a user’s watch behavior data and AI to predict and jump to the parts watchers would want to get to.
When a user double-taps the screen to skip ahead, a new button on eligible videos will jump forward to the AI-predicted spot in the timeline.
This testing follows the company’s recent efforts to make YouTube more functional and engaging through a new design.
Why is YouTube testing out this new feature?
Overall, it seems like a sound strategy on YouTube’s part, adding a new reason for people to leap to Premium.
There’s no word on whether this will become a regular feature after testing, nor did the team mention if the feature will be available for non-Premium users. However, it would be oddly generous for an ad company to offer non-paying users a way to devalue ad spots on videos for the sake of convenience.
For now, we’ll have to see how the test pans out.