Article updated on January 24, 2021 by Byothe
In just a few years, YouTube has become an essential institution on the web! The number of videos uploaded every day is staggering and more and more people are making a living from their videos on the platform.
Whether you're a heavy YouTube user or not, there are a number of tricks that will make your life easier with the video hosting site. Here are 10 things you need to know to hack YouTube URLs and save time!
1. Loop a video endlessly
This feature is not useful every day, but there may be times when you want to watch or listen to a video on repeat (for example if you are trying to learn a song on the guitar)…
To do this, simply add repeater after youtube in the URL. This will open the video on the website YouTube Repeater and loop the video.
For example, simply modify the following URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k
like this:
https://www.youtuberepeater.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k
2. Bypass age restrictions
YouTube has put restrictions on some videos to protect young people from content deemed inappropriate. To access them, you must log in with your account. So, if you don't have a YouTube account or don't want to log in, you can still be cunning.
Take the URL of a video that has a restriction like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvZ6nB3cl1w
delete it watch and replace it = by / to generate a URL that looks like this:
youtube.com/v/wvZ6nB3cl1wThe video will then be launched in full screen mode and you will be able to watch it without logging in.
This trick also works for content blocked in certain regions.
3. Link to any part of a video
Logically enough, when you copy a link to a YouTube video, it starts at the beginning. But if you want to show someone a specific passage that starts at a certain point, you can add a timestamp to the URL so that it starts at that exact moment.
There are two ways to do this.
Manually, by adding &t=YmXXs at the end of the video URL. This will make the video start at the Ye minute and the XX second. You can also just put the seconds, like for example 100s to start the video at 1m40.
So :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k
takes the following form to start at 1 minute 05:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k&t=1m05s
If you don't want to do this manually, you can stop the video at any time that suits you, right-click on the video and choose Copy URL from this sequence.
4. Skipping part of a video's intro
Along the same lines as the trick that lets you choose when the video starts, you can also choose to skip a whole section of the beginning of the video… perfect for intros that are too long!
To do this, simply add start = 30 at the end of the URL to skip the first 30 seconds…
For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k
by adding start=42, you start directly at the 42nd second:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k&start=42
5. Download YouTube videos
Essential tip, but it goes through third-party sites! There are various URL shortcuts that will help you quickly and easily retrieve videos.
In front of youtube.com in the URL add either pwni.e kick to directly access these services allowing you to download the video in various formats.
So, with the following URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k
you can download the video by transforming it like this:
https://www.pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k https://www.kickyoutube.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k
6. Show YouTube TV
YouTube TV is basically an interface developed for smart TVs and game consoles. Simplified and elegant, it is designed to be used with a remote control and therefore has fewer frills.
If you're looking for a clean interface for YouTube, you should like this.
To access it, simply go to the following URL:
https://www.youtube.com/tv
7. Access your subscriptions directly
YouTube's homepage and its personalized suggestions are not to everyone's taste... You can therefore access your subscriptions very easily by using the following address directly:
https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions
You will have direct access to new videos from the channels you follow…
8. Retrieve preview image from any video
It is possible to retrieve the preview image of any YouTube video in high definition (if it has one) by going to the following URL:
https://img.youtube.com/vi/[ID Vidéo]/maxresdefault.jpg
In the URL, replace [Video ID] by the code located after the v= from the URL of any video.
For example to see the preview of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k
Meeting on :
https://img.youtube.com/vi/VpG3x3CKc5k/maxresdefault.jpg
9. Make an animated GIF from a video
Want to grab a piece of video and make a GIF? Just add the prefix gif in front of youtube.com in the video link.
https://www.gifyoutube.com/watch?v=VpG3x3CKc5k
You will then be taken to the Gifs.com website which allows you to add effects, text and modify lots of things to make a GIF to your liking.
10. Make Mashups from 2 YouTube videos
This last trick is not strictly speaking a hack that is done from the URL of a video, but it is a site in which you will be able to mix together 2 YouTube videos. The site is called Youtube Doubler and has a few options to adjust your Mashups.
You can have fun adding weird sounds or musical tracks to more serious videos!
To finish…
These 10 tips aren't essential to getting the most out of YouTube, but I'm sure some of them will come in handy one day.
If you have any other YouTube tips, please let us know in the comments!
Hello, I just tested tip #2, but it doesn't read it, it records it for me by putting an alert. It's tested under Chrome.
yes indeed, it doesn't seem to work anymore.