YouTube keyboard shortcuts

All YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts (2024)

YouTube has become a staple in the online world, with millions of videos being uploaded and viewed every day. To help optimize your viewing experience and save you time, use keyboard shortcuts and gestures! Here are all the keyboard shortcuts and gestures available on YouTube in 2024!

Keyboard Shortcuts for Playback Speed

These handy shortcuts will allow you to quickly change the playback speed of your video. On mobile, you can also press and hold on the video to set the playback speed to 2x.

Action Shortcut
Increase playback rate SHIFT + .
Decrease playback rate SHIFT + ,

Frame by Frame Keyboard Shortcuts

You must have the video paused first to use these keyboard shortcuts. These allow you to view a video frame-by-frame to catch any quick edits in the video.

Action Shortcut
Next frame (while paused) .
Previous frame (while paused) ,

Change Chapter Keyboard Shortcuts

This is one of my favorite shortcuts. It allows you to skip ads or quickly reach a different section of the video that you're more interested in.

Action Shortcut
Seek to next chapter CONTROL + right arrow key
Seek to previous chapter CONTROL + left arrow key

General YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts

Action Shortcut
Toggle play/pause k or SPACE
Rewind 10 seconds j or left arrow key
Fast forward 10 seconds l or right arrow key
Previous video SHIFT + p
Next video SHIFT + n
Seek to specific point in the video (0% to 90%) 0-9
Toggle full screen f
Toggle theater mode t
Toggle miniplayer i
Toggle mute m

YouTube Gestures on Mobile

YouTube mobile app screenshot
Learning these mobile gestures will make navigating videos on your phone much faster.

Obviously these keyboard shortcuts won't work on mobile. However, there are a few gestures you can learn to massively improve your viewing experience on mobile!

Action Gesture
Enable full screen Swipe up on video
Disable full screen Swipe down on video
Skip forward 10 seconds Double tap on the right side of the video
Skip backwards 10 seconds Double tap on the left side of the video
Skip to next chapter Double tap on the right side of the video with 2 fingers
Skip to previous chapter Double tap on the left side of the video with 2 fingers
Zoom in on video Punch outward with 2 fingers

Other Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are a few other shortcuts. These are much more specific and niche, so they likely won't be as useful. We want to include them anyway to cover all of the shortcuts available.

Subtitles and Closed Captions Shortcuts

Action Shortcut
If the video supports captions, toggle captions ON/OFF c
Rotate through different text opacity levels o
Rotate through different window opacity levels w
Rotate through font sizes (increasing) +
Rotate through font sizes (decreasing) -

Spherical Video Shortcuts

Action Shortcut
Pan up w
Pan left a
Pan down s
Pan right d
Zoom in + on numpad or ]
Zoom out - on numpad or [

Conclusion

By mastering keyboard shortcuts on YouTube, you can streamline your viewing experience, save time, and navigate the platform more efficiently.

Next time you're on YouTube, try incorporating these keyboard shortcuts and gestures into your viewing routine. You'll be amazed at how much time and effort you can save over the long term by using these simple tricks. I hope you learned some new keyboard shortcuts for YouTube from this post! Thanks for reading!

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