As one of the biggest online content platforms, YouTube has many features you can leverage to improve your streaming experience on Android. The only problem is that since your Android screen is smaller than a laptop or desktop screen, many of the platform's features are tucked away to give maximum space for the content.

Let's take a look at the best features in the YouTube app for Android that you might not know about.

1. Double Tap to Skip Forward or Back

On YouTube's mobile app, you can quickly skip forward or move back by 10 seconds by double tapping on the right or left half of the video. Repeat the gesture several times if you need to skip forward or back by more than 10 seconds.

The catch is this can be tiresome if the video is long, and you need to skip forward or back by several minutes. And that's where customization comes in handy.

To change the period of the double tap seek gesture, tap on your YouTube profile photo in the top right while in the Home tab. Next, select Settings > General > Skip forward and back and choose your preferred period from five seconds to a minute.

2. Use Chapters to Navigate Video Sections Easily

Using double-tap gestures is not as precise, and it may require more effort if you want to skip to a certain section in the video, especially if it's a lengthy tutorial. If that's what you want, then you should use chapters.

First, tap anywhere in the video player to reveal the video settings. Tap the current chapter's title, and YouTube will display a full list of the available chapters. Scroll through the chapters and select where you want to skip to; YouTube will jump to that section.

Not all YouTube videos have Chapters.

For a more fine-tuned experience, we recommend using YouTube's precise seeking feature that can help jump to a specific moment in a video.

3. Pinch to Zoom

Pinch-to-zoom is handy if you need to view an object in a video more closely. The feature allows you to zoom up to 8x, bringing even the furthest objects in a video closer, simply by using the same pinching gesture you use in any app. Here's a full guide on how to use YouTube's pinch-to-zoom feature.

4. Disable Autoplay

Like other platforms, YouTube is engineered in such a way to ensure that you're raking in as much view time as possible. Besides the video recommendation system, YouTube automatically plays the next video to give you a continuous stream of content. Thankfully you can disable this feature on your Android device.

While streaming a video, tap anywhere in the video player window to reveal the player controls and other settings. From the displayed settings, tap to toggle off the Auto-play button in the top right.

5. Clear and Pause Your Search History

YouTube's search button is a great way to find specific content on the platform. However, while this feature is beneficial, it can be a source of embarrassment if someone else uses your account to watch YouTube content.

If you're the privacy-conscious type, pausing and deleting your YouTube search history is a great way to prevent someone else from viewing your search history. To pause your YouTube search history, tap your profile photo in the top right and select Your data in YouTube. Then, select an account if you have more than one on your device.

On the next page, scroll down to YouTube Search History and tap the On option beneath. Finally, tap to uncheck Include your searches on YouTube to pause your search history.

We have a dedicated guide on deleting your YouTube search history if you want to clear past searches.

YouTube's recommendation algorithm is handy for discovering new videos you might like. When you're watching a video, there's no need to stop the player and go back to look for something interesting to watch.

Related videos displaying on YouTube mobile app

Instead, if you're in full-screen mode, you can swipe up to view related or recommended videos that you can watch. YouTube displays a number of recommendations; you need to swipe left to find what seems interesting to you. Once you've found a video you like, tap it to play.

7. Change the Video Quality

YouTube offers a variety of video quality options that you can choose from. You can choose between 144p to 4K depending on whether you want to watch videos in the highest quality available or want to get the most out of your limited data plan.

Remember, the available quality options depend on the source video. If a video was not uploaded in high resolution, you won't be able to stream in high-quality options on YouTube.

Here's how you can change your YouTube video quality:

  1. Play any video.
  2. Tap anywhere in the player window and select the Settings icon in the top right.
  3. Select Quality from the pop-up menu and tap Advanced.
  4. From the next pop-up, choose your preferred quality to use for the current video.

The only bummer is you can't permanently change the video quality on YouTube to a specific resolution in the mobile app. That means you'll need to repeat these steps often if you prefer 1080p resolution or higher.

8. Make Watch Later Actually Useful

YouTube's Watch Later playlist is a handy place for storing videos you'd like to watch when you have time. If you're on the Home tab, you can easily add a video to your Watch Later playlist by tapping the three-dot menu next to the video's title and selecting Save to Watch Later from the pop-up.

To access your Watch Later playlist, tap Library at the bottom right and select Watch Later under Playlists. You can tap Sort to change the order of videos and Play all to play all the videos in the playlist.

9. Share Videos With Friends

YouTube's share button is an easy way to share videos with friends or post them on social media. Simply tap the Share button and select the platform to which you wish to share the video from the share sheet.

10. Use Picture-in-Picture Mode

Picture-in-picture mode is one of the hidden YouTube features you should often use. It lets you watch YouTube videos in a tiny window while using other apps. The only catch is you must pay for YouTube Premium to access the feature.

If you're a YouTube Premium subscriber, you can use picture-in-picture mode by first enabling the feature on your device. In your phone's settings, go to Apps > Special app access > Picture-in-picture > YouTube and toggle on Allow picture-in-picture.

The precise steps might vary depending on your device maker, model, and Android version.

After that, enable the feature in YouTube's mobile app by going to Settings > General and toggling on Picture-in-picture. Finally, to launch picture-in-picture mode, exit YouTube while playing a video.

Improve Your YouTube Experience on Android

YouTube's Android app has many features you might not see. The app has tucked away many of its most useful features to reduce clutter and make it simpler to use. But by utilizing the features listed above, you can improve your YouTube experience on Android.