You can get more out of YouTube with these cool YouTube URL tricks that let you make GIFs, loop videos, and more.
Though YouTube remains the premier video site on the web, you probably don't think much about customizing it. But whether you're a casual user or watch online videos every day, there are all sorts of ways to tweak YouTube.
A major category of these are special YouTube link tricks. Let's look at some YouTube URL tricks to help you get more out of the service, like turning videos into GIFs.
1. Link to Any Part of a Video
Normally, when you copy a link to a YouTube video and open it, it starts from the beginning. But if you want to show someone a certain section of a video or skip a lengthy intro, you can append a timestamp to the URL to start it at that time.
You can do this in a couple of ways. By manually adding &t=YmXXs to the end of a video URL, you'll set it to start Y minutes and XX seconds into the video. You can omit minutes, or use only seconds, such as 90s for a minute and a half.
2. Loop a Video Infinitely
YouTube is a great place for listening to music that you can't find elsewhere, such as video game soundtracks for studying. If you're into a song and want to listen to it over and over, you can add repeater after youtube in the URL.
This will open the video at YouTubeRepeater.com, which loops the video for you.
3. Bypass Age Restrictions
YouTube has age restrictions on certain videos flagged as containing mature content. Whether you don't have a YouTube account or don't feel like signing in to watch one, you can perform a little trick to bypass signing in.
4. Skip a Certain Amount of the Intro
Similar to the URL trick that lets you pick the start time of a video, you can also choose to skip a certain number of seconds at the start of the video. You can't specify minutes with this one, so use 90 (seconds) for a minute and a half.
5. Claim a Custom YouTube Channel URL
If you have your own YouTube channel and meet certain requirements, you can set a vanity URL for your page. This is much easier to remember than the default random string of characters, so it's worth doing for easier linking on social media and other sites.
6. Jump Straight to Your YouTube Subscriptions
Many times, the suggestions offered by YouTube aren't useful. Whether your recommendations are filled with strange content or the home page contains videos you don't care about, you can set a better YouTube landing page.
7. Grab the Thumbnail of Any Video
It's common when searching Google for images to see pictures from YouTube videos, usually titled maxresdefault. With a URL tweak, you can easily view a high-quality thumbnail for any YouTube video (if it has one)
8. Make a GIF from a YouTube Video
Found a YouTube video that has a GIF-worthy moment? You can easily create an animated GIF from any part of a video by adding gif before the YouTube link.
9. Mix Music From YouTube Videos
This one isn't a true URL hack, as you can't visit it right from YouTube. However, it still uses YouTube URLs, so we're including it. Visit YouTube DJ and you can add two YouTube URLs to mix their music together. Use the controls to set shortcut points to different parts of the songs, and adjust the fading and speed as you see fit.
If you've ever thought two music tracks would go together pretty well, this is the site for you!
Have More Fun With YouTube URL Tricks
These tricks will let you get even more out of YouTube. Some are built into YouTube itself, while others rely on outside services. It's possible that any of these could stop working in the future, so your mileage may vary as time passes.
