YouTube has started rolling out a new feature on its platform that makes video viewing faster. Called “Jump ahead”, it appears when you press twice on the right part of the screen in order to advance the video ten seconds forward. A button appears in the lower right corner and offers to “skip a usually skipped section”, that is to skip a part of the video that most users do not watch to automatically reach the next interesting sequence. If the user chooses to enable the option, a YouTube Premium badge is displayed, with the feature being reserved for paid subscribers. This relies on AI, as well as user viewing data.
In testing since March 2024, the “Jump ahead” functionality has been made more widely accessible via the youtube.com/new page. However, it is currently only available on the YouTube application on Android smartphones in the United States and only for videos in English. Users can enable it by going to the “Try new experimental features” menu in the app settings. It also only seems to work on videos with a large number of views. The experiment is supposed to end on June 1, but it is possible that YouTube, which recently tightened the screws against apps blocking ads, will continue its adventure given the positive feedback it generates.
