YouTube finally offers the possibility to jump to specific chapters within the videos, so that we can locate a specific fragment instantly, and know what it is about.
Something useful when we talk about clips of a certain duration, that deal with various topics, or tell us a story. With the chapters it will be easy to directly access the content that interests us without having to fast forward or rewind the YouTube video.
It is surprising that YouTube has taken so long to add the episodes, though perhaps their concern is that the amount of time users spend on the platform will be reduced if they instantly locate what they are looking for.
It was not uncommon to find videos that indicated the minute and second in which each section began in the description. With the chapters this will no longer be necessary, the YouTube interface will allow us to jump directly to that part.
Chapters must be manually entered by the video creator, and each must be at least 10 seconds long. You have to put at least 3 chapters in each clip, so they make sense in content of a certain length.
Now the progress bar will be shown divided into blocks, one for each chapter. When clicking on each block we see the title of that section, and a thumbnail image, to get a more specific idea of the topic:
The chapters arrive on YouTube on Android, iOS and computers, which are the main platforms, so everyone can try them. It is to be imagined that they could be extended to other devices in the future (such as consoles and smart TVs), but at the moment Google has not confirmed anything.
Although there is a risk that users will spend less time on YouTube by finding what they are looking for sooner, it is also possible that they feel that their time is better used, and it encourages them to spend more hours on the platform.
Google says early results have been pretty good, and encourages creators to use chapters. Of course, for now it will be difficult to find content divided into chapters, at least until the channels adapt.
The streaming platform has been adding new features these days, such as YouTube notifying us when it's time to sleep, and it seems that it continues to work to improve.
Of course, the chapters are a very important improvement on YouTube, and we will have to see to what extent it is used by youtubers, although in principle it seems promising.
