Google is testing a new video chapter feature in YouTube

YouTube users have waited a long time for this one. Watching a lengthy video on the network can be a nuisance, especially if there's a lot of content packed in. I've always searched for timestamps in the video description when watching a review or listening to a music album.

Now Google is testing a new feature that will bake the functionality into YouTube's video player. It's supposedly called Video Chapters and will allow users to jump to different parts of a video, using just the slider in the YouTube player. Apparently, the feature takes the same timestamps from the description of a video (if present) and transforms them into different segments, visible on the slider. Hovering over a section (or a chapter) reveals its name and duration.


The new feature was spotted by Podcaststage and reported on Twitter. Digging into the comments under the original post showed that some users had seen the same segmented slider on their YouTube video player. I wasn't able to replicate this on desktop or mobile, but some of my colleagues confirmed the presence of the feature yesterday on both platforms.

The only downside is that creators still have to put those timestamps in the description of the video. It's a little extra work, but judging by the positive reception so far, it can pay off in the long run. We've reached out to Google for an official comment and will keep you posted for any development. Have you seen this new feature in your YouTube player?