YouTube lets Android users share timestamps via chapters

YouTube is now distributing a feature within the Android YouTube app that allows users to share timestamps in videos with others. Previously, users had to manually adjust the URL with a timestamp.

Users can now share timestamps within the Android YouTube app by chapters, Android Police discovered. If youtubers have added such chapters to a video, users can click a chapter name above the progress bar at the bottom of a video. Then a list of all chapters appears, with a share button next to each chapter.

When the user presses that share button, a URL is created that can be copied or shared with other apps, such as WhatsApp. This URL then contains a timestamp associated with the start of a chapter within a video. That timestamp is displayed in the same way as when a user creates a timestamp via the browser. A ?t=xx indication will appear at the end of the URL, where xx expresses in seconds at which point in the video the clip should start.

The feature will probably be distributed in phases, regardless of whether the latest version of the YouTube Android app is installed or not. The YouTube chapters were officially added to YouTube last May and allow youtubers to divide their video into these chapters to allow skipping to certain parts within a video.