Even though YouTube has been around for many years and it would be impossible to imagine the internet without it, casual users are still a long way from making the most out of it. In fact, the platform has advanced quite a lot in recent years which is natural given how many people are using it. If you are a regular video watcher, there are definitely some interesting things for you to discover. If you want to learn about them, make sure to continue reading.

Kids Version

Those who have kids are probably aware of how difficult it is to keep them occupied. It would seem that these days are quite interested in watching various videos. YouTube is aware of this, so they have introduced a kid version of their website. One of its biggest advantages is all the education programs that are offered. Google “Youtube for kids” and you will uncover more videos than your children could ever watch.

Video Downloading

How to download YouTube videos on Mac and other questions tend to appear quite often. When it comes to getting videos directly to your device, there are quite a lot of options. However, nothing beats using a browser downloader because all it takes is pasting the URL and pressing the “download” button to download YouTube video to computer.

Keyboard Shortcuts

An average user might not even bother with it, but once you get comfortable with using it, everything will become much more comfortable. The ones that you will probably use most often are K for pausing the video, L for skipping it, J for rewinding, M for turning the sound on and off. The escape button allows you to exit the full-screen mode, and it is worth mentioning that you can pause and unpause using the space button.

Timestamp

There are some videos that are very long. However, if you would like to show a particular time of the video by clicking on the link, it is possible. Just pause it at the appropriate time and right-click with the mouse. An option to copy the video URL of the current time will appear. Select that one and now you can paste the link with the timestamp on it.

Dark Themes

A recent trend among various websites is the dark theme. A lot of users like to spend their time surfing at evenings and a white background is pretty annoying. That is one of the reasons why the likes of Reddit and YouTube has introduced dark themes to their sites. Users appreciate it a lot. However, these things do not change automatically. You will need to visit the optimization page and make a change yourself.

Captions

Whenever you are having the trouble of understanding the video, consider turning on the captions. Sure, in most cases they are fan-made or computer generated and, thus, not completely accurate. However, they should still give you more of an idea of what is happening in the video.

Movies

Yes, YouTube has its own streaming service akin to that of Netflix. If you prefer to watch movies at home, this could be another option to explore. One of the great things about this particular service is that you can find not just the old releases, but some that are currently playing in cinemas.

Watch Later

If you are unable to watch the video right now, you can always add it to the “watch later” list in case you forget about it, or cannot remember the name/link for the video.

Virtual Reality

Another pastime activity that is getting more and more attention these days. Every fan of the platform can experience their favorite videos in a new way by exploring it from the inside. It will be a completely different feeling than what you are used to.

As you can see, YouTube has definitely a lot to offer to everyone who is willing to explore more of its features. The future also seems bright and we can definitely expect to see even more cool things added in the upcoming years.