YouTube tests new way to skip through videos – Times of India

YouTube seems to be working on a new and an easier way to help users skip to a specific part of videos on its platform. As reported by a Redditor via AndroidPolice, it is testing a gesture wherein one can tap and hold, and then dragging towards the right or left part of the screen to scrub through the video.
Currently, users need to tap on the screen to bring the progress bar and then tap and hold to scrub through the video. The gesture was introduced last year replacing the ability to tap anywhere on the seek bar to skip video. However, this was frustrating for users especially when the tap was accidental.
With the new gesture, users will see a “Slide left or right to seek” message on top of the video to confirm that the gesture was triggered, and not accidental. The feature is rolling out as a server-side test and is available on YouTube version 16.31.34 beta (APK Mirror).
In other news, the company has announced YouTube Shorts Fund, a $100 million fund for creators. The fund, YouTube says, will be used to reward creators for their viral videos during the course of 2021-2022. The payment will start from this month itself (August) and YouTube will reach out to eligible creators. Under the program, content creators can earn anywhere from $100 (Rs 7,400 approximately) to $10,000 (Rs 7,40,000 approximately) on YouTube.