Quick tip: Playing a Video Temporarily at Double Speed in the YouTube Android App

Last updated on 25 February 2024

When watching a video using the YouTube app, you can change the playback speed by tapping on “More Options” and then selecting “Playback speed”. There, you can either slow down the video up to 0.25x or speed it up to 2x. But what if you want to temporarily double the playback speed quickly? In this tip, I will show you how to do that on the YouTube Android app.

Steps to Temporarily Play the Video at Double Speed:

When the Screen is in Portrait Mode:

1. Play a video in the YouTube app.
2. Locate the item called “Video player”. You can either use the screen reader gestures that navigate between onscreen elements to find it or locate it in the upper part of the screen.
3. Ensure that other playback controls like minimize, previous video, etc., are not shown. Usually, when you first play the video, these items are not present on the screen and are revealed by double-tapping the “Video player”.
4. Double-tap and hold the “Video player”. You don’t need to long-press the exact position; after focusing on the item, it is enough to double-tap and hold anywhere on the screen.
5. As long as your finger is on the screen, the video will continue to play at 2x speed. The playback speed returns to normal when you lift your finger off the screen.
6. Long-press again whenever you want to enable the double speed effect.

When using the full-screen option or when in landscape mode:

If you are playing a video in full screen either by changing how you are holding your phone when auto-rotation is turned on or by activating the “Enter Fullscreen” option when playing a video, make sure that when touching the screen, your screen reader is not speaking anything. Then, double-tap anywhere and hold your finger on the screen. This will start the double speed playback until you lift your finger off the screen.

Notes:

1. When playback options are present on the screen, long-pressing the video player will not double the playback speed. Instead, it will play and pause the video. Tap the “Hide controls” option to hide the playback controls.
2. When the playback controls are hidden, you can keep using the functions to go to the next or previous video or to play/pause if you are using the Jieshuo screen reader. For TalkBack users, only a play/pause function is available.