We use shortcuts all the time, be it Copy-Paste, sliding between different Windows, or while using VS Code (if you are a programmer). Shortcuts, especially Keyboard shortcuts make it easy to access different options available in a software or application without using the mouse.
Keyboard shortcuts are built into online services too, like YouTube, has its own set of shortcuts for various purposes, that can make your video-watching experience a lot simpler and easier. YouTube has become a go-to platform for videos, be it for learning, entertainment, news, etc. and a lot of you must be watching YouTube videos on your laptops or computers, so here we have some Keyboard shortcuts that will help you enjoy YouTube without stretching out to reach your mouse.
YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts for Day-to-Day Use
It's time to make you a smart YouTube user and bring in a lot of YouTube controls at the tip of your fingertips.
1. Selecting the Search Box using a Hotkey
You can just press the / key anytime you want to search anything on YouTube and you will be directed to the search bar immediately.
So you don't have to move your mouse all the way to the top of your browser window, click on the search bar, you can simply press the / key and you are there in the search bar and can start typing whatever you want to search.
After you have searched, you can browse the results by using the up and down arrow keys and use the Return key to run the selected video.
Finally, you can use the Escape key to collapse the search box.
2. Pausing and Unpausing a YouTube Video shortcut
You can press the Space bar or the K key to pause and unpause any YouTube video that you are watching.
3. Full Screen on YouTube shortcut
You can press the F key at any time while watching the video and go to full-screen mode on YouTube. You can come out of the full-screen mode by pressing the F key again or the ESC key.
4. Shortcut to Mute a YouTube Video
You can just press the M key to mute a YouTube video at any time and then unmute the YouTube video by pressing the the M key the second time.
5. Shortcut to Change the YouTube video Playback Speed
There are 8 playback speed options offered by YouTube:
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0.25x
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0.5x
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0.75x
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Normal
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1.25x
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1.5x
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1.75x
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2.0x
To access these speed controls you have to first click on the YouTube gear icon, then choose the "playback speed" option and then you can change it from there. But this seems to be a lengthy process, especially when there are easier keyboard shortcuts available.
Instead, you can use the playback speed control hotkeys/shortcuts:
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Press Shift + . to increase the playback speed of a video by 25%
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Press Shift + , to decrease the playback speed of a video by 25%
If you just hold the relevant hotkey for long you can max out to 2.0x or reach the minimum speed of 0.25x.
6. Advancing a YouTube Video Frame-by-Frame or Go back a Frame
You can step through the YouTube videos frame-by-frame if that is what you want.
For this just press, the "Space Bar" or "K" first to pause the video and then press "." key to go forward a frame, or "," key to go a frame back.
You can hold any of these keys to make a super slow or super slow rewind effect of your own.
7. Shortcut to Restart the YouTube Video or Jump Forward
You can jump to different points in a YouTube video using the number keys 0-9.
If you press "0" the video will restart, pressing "5" will make you jump to exactly the middle of the video, similarly pressing "9" will take you to the ending 10% of the video. I hope you get the idea.
8. Turning on Closed Captions or Subtitles
When you are watching a foreign film or any video where the language is tough to understand, you certainly prefer to watch with the subtitles on.
You can toggle the subtitles or captions using your keyboard by pressing the "C" key.
But if you want to change the language of the captions you have to go to the Gear icon and change it from the Subtitles option.
9. Shortcut to Rewind or Fast Forward YouTube video by 5 Seconds
To jump forward and backward (rewind) in a YouTube video you can use the right and left arrows respectively. If you want to jump past entire sections of the video you can just hold down these buttons.
These will make you jump five seconds backward or forward at a time.
10. Shortcut to Turn Up and Down the Volume of a YouTube Video
You can adjust the sound of your video very easily on YouTube using just the keyboard, i.e. by pressing the up and down arrow keys.
You can listen to YouTube at 20 different volumes at 5% increments.
11. Playing the Up Next Video (or Next Video in a Playlist)
You can play the "Up Next" video on YouTube by hitting "Shift + N" and skipping the current video entirely.
If you are watching some video on a playlist this will take you to the next song in the playlist.
YouTube Mouse Shortcuts
There are also a couple of shortcuts that are helpful but accessed with the mouse. To see the available options, right click on the Mouse and you will see the menu with many different options like shown in the image below.
You will find that when you right-click on a video on YouTube some different menus appear which are different from the normal menus and which give you some extra features for the Video.
For instance, you can right-click on the YouTube video and choose the loop option to keep repeating the video on a loop, over and over again.
End Note
We hope you enjoy watching videos on YouTube and use these shortcuts to make your life easier while enjoying YouTube videos. Just like YouTube all the major video streaming websites have Keyboard shortcuts. All you have to do is look for them.
