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YouTube Shortcuts You Should Know in 2024

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Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube, as one of the most popular free streaming video portals, the majority of people use it, probably several times a day. However, how many of you know that there are more than 20 shortcuts that help you use the website comparatively more conveniently?

With that said, the following two-columned tables give you detailed information on the shortcut keys and their respective functions, so you don’t have to grab the mouse every time you want to navigate through the YouTube videos, or do any such similar tasks.

Amazing YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts You May Not Know

To make things convenient for you, the shortcut keys are placed under their corresponding categories, where each category is in the form of a two-columned table.

Category 1: YouTube Playback Hotkeys

While watching a YouTube video, there might be instances when you want to pause and resume the playback. This category teaches how this can be done using the keyboard:

Keyboard Shortcut Function
'K' Play and Pause (Works as a toggle key)
'Spacebar' Play and Pause (Works as a toggle key)

Category 2: Scrolling YouTube Videos Back and Forth

This section talks about the shortcut keys to skim the video forward and backward during playback:

Keyboard Shortcut Function
'L' Skip the video 10 seconds forward
'J' Skip the video 10 seconds backward
'→' (Right Arrow) Skip the video 5 seconds forward
'←' (Left Arrow) Skip the video 5 seconds backward
'SHIFT' + 'N' Skip to the next video in the playlist or to the next suggested video
'K' or 'Spacebar'; then '.' (Period) Pressing 'K' or 'Spacebar' pauses the video; pressing the '.' (Period) key repeatedly moves the video forward one frame at a time (Period key on the Numpad isn't supported)
'K' or 'Spacebar'; then ',' (Comma) Pressing 'K' or 'Spacebar' pauses the video; pressing the ',' (Comma) key repeatedly moves the video backward one frame at a time (Period key on the Numpad isn't supported)
'0' (Zero) Takes the video to the beginning

If you’re watching videos on YouTube mobile app, you can use double-tap on the right side of the video player to skip 10 seconds forward, and double-tap on the left side of the video player to skip the video 10 seconds backward. Every double-tap forwards/rewinds the video in 10-seconds increments. E.g., Tapping 6 times on the right skips the video 30 seconds forward. Tapping 6 times on the left skips the video 30 seconds backward.

Long press the Video Player and swipe right will navigate the video forward; and long press the video player and wwipe left will navigate the video backward.

Category 3: Manage Playback Speed

This category contains information on increasing or decreasing the playback speed of a YouTube video:

Keyboard Shortcut Function
'SHIFT' + '.' (Period) Increase playback speed
'SHIFT' + ',' (Comma) Decrease playback speed

Category 4: Managing the Captions

This category talks about managing the video captions using the shortcut keys:

Keyboard Shortcut Function
'C' Enable or disable captions (Works as a toggle key)
'O' (The letter O) Increase or decrease the brightness level of the captions (Works as a toggle key)
'W' Enable, increase, and disable the background transparency of the captions (Press multiple times to manage intensity)
'-' (Minus Key) Reduce the font size of the captions (Minus key on the Numpad isn't supported)
'+' (Plus Key) Increase the font size of the captions (Plus key on the Numpad isn't supported)

Category 5: Managing the Audio Video

This category shows the shortcut keys to manage audio for a YouTube video:

Keyboard Shortcut Function
'M' Mute YouTube video
'↑' Increase volume by 5%
'↓' Decrease volume by 5%

Category 6: Switching Between Screen Modes

The shortcut keys given in this table enable you to switch between different screen modes:

Keyboard Shortcut Function
'F' Switch between the full-screen and normal mode (Works as a toggle key)
'T' Switch between the theater and normal mode (Works as a toggle key)
'I' Switch between the independent player and normal mode (Works as a toggle key)

Double press F/T/I on the keyboard will exit the full-screen/theater model/independent mode accordingly.

If you are watching video on YouTube mobile app, you can swipe up the video slightly to enter the full screen mode, and swipe down the video slightly to exit the full screen.

Category 7: Viewing 360o/VR Videos

In this category, the navigation and management of shortcut keys for 360o and Virtual Reality (VR) view are discussed:

Keyboard Shortcut Function
'W', 'A', 'S', 'D' Up, left, down, and right camera panning respectively
'+' (Plus Key on Numpad) Zoom in
'-' (Minus Key on Numpad) Zoom out
'-' (Minus Key on Keyboard) Decrease font size
'+' (Plus Key on Keyboard) Increase font size

Bonus: How to Get the YouTube Shortcut List with One-Click

In this section, you will learn how to pull up the list of important YouTube shortcuts by pressing merely one key:

Keyboard Shortcut Function
'SHIFT' + '?' Show the important keyboard shortcuts assigned for YouTube

So, when you press the Shift+? on YouTube, you will see a full list of shortcuts.

YouTube Shortcut List

Conclusion

Watching videos on YouTube is fun, and you can enjoy the clips, movies, tutorials, etc. more if you are well-aware of the important shortcut keys. This not only helps you navigate through the videos faster but also gives you relief from the additional efforts that you would otherwise have to make while grabbing the mouse, and then looking for and using the correct option.

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Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
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Richard Bennett

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