During late 2017 YouTube began testing its playback speed feature, which subsequently has now been pushed live over all its platforms including it’s mobile app.
What is youtube playback speed?
The playback speed feature (as the name suggests) allows users to increase the speed in which the video plays back by up to 2 times. Importantly the feature ensures that audio is not noticeably distorted with the audio pitch remain relatively natural – There’s non of the squeaky voice we are used too with sped up footage.
So what’s the point of increasing the playback speed?
Well to put it quite bluntly, viewers are getting lazy and want to consume content faster. Realistically this is the main benefit of producing videos in the first place. The increased playback speed helps viewers with shorter attention spans consume your content quicker before clicking off to something new. This feature is particularly useful for longer length videos which include a lot of talking, such as live streams or vlog style videos.
How to adjust YouTube playback speed
On the mobile app it’s as simple as clicking the 3 vertical dots at the top right of the screen, then selecting playback speed. You can choose from a variety of intervals from 0.25x to 2x faster.
On YouTube desktop you simple have to press the gear icon and select speed. This then gives you the ability to select your desired playback speed.
Youtube black back speed is automatically available on all videos.
The best thing about this feature is it’s automatically available on all videos you upload to Youtube. Most people don’t even know it’s available so spread the word if you think it’s a cool feature!