Use chapter and seeking features

Navigation tips to explore YouTube content on your mobile device

With YouTube's chapter and seeking features, you can quickly and easily navigate the video that you're watching. Seeking is when you use the scrubber, the red dot in the progress bar, to change your place in the video.

Watch videos by chapter

You can navigate videos by selecting different chapters, if a creator has added them to their video. These chapters break up a video into different sections.

To go to a specific chapter:

1. Click the video to open the progress bar. 
2. Move the scrubber (red dot) to one of the different chapters. Chapters are marked by a vertical line in the progress bar. The chapter title will appear as you move from section to section. 
3. Click play  to start the video from that chapter. 

You can also find chapters by scrolling down to the bottom of the video description or selecting the chapter title in the video player above the progress bar. 

Find mentioned people

People mentioned in the video that you're watching are listed in the video's description so that you can get more info about them and find related videos. People are only listed if they're mentioned in the video's transcript and included in our Knowledge Graph.

Find people mentioned in a chapter 

1. In the video's description, scroll down to the Chapters section. 
2. Select View all.  
3. Select Timeline. 
4. Scroll to a chapter. 
5. From the list of people in that chapter, select who you'd like to get info about. 

While watching a video, you can also select the chapter title in the video player above the progress bar, then select Timeline to find mentioned people. 

We're continuing to improve this feature, so submit feedback if you find an issue.

Go to the most replayed parts of a video

When you start seeking, a graph shows up above the progress bar. The graph lets you find which parts of a video are most often rewatched. If the graph is high, then that part of the video has been replayed often.

Precise seeking

Precise seeking makes it easy to go to a specific moment in a video.

Use precise seeking to find a specific moment in a video ft. Lyanna Kea 📌 📺

To use precise seeking:

1. Tap the screen to see the progress bar appear on screen.
2. Slide up from the scrubber (the red dot).
3. You will see a row of thumbnails below the progress bar.

Choosing where to seek:

1. Once you see the row of thumbnails, you can swipe on them or on the scrubber to change your playback position.
2. To start playing from the selected location, tap Play   or anywhere above the thumbnails.
3. To cancel the seek, tap Cancel  .

Release to cancel a seek

While you're seeking, you may decide that you want to cancel this action and return to where you'd stopped watching the video.

Learn about features that help you control your viewing experience on YouTube

To cancel seeking:

1. Move the scrubber (the red dot) in the progress bar towards where you'd stopped watching.
2. Wait until you feel a vibration or see the 'Release to cancel' notification.
3. Lift your finger to go back to the place where you'd stopped the video.