/en/youtube/what-is-youtube/content/

Watching YouTube videos

Now that you know the basics, you're ready to dive in and start watching YouTube videos. For example, you can just click the YouTube video below to play it.

As you (hopefully) just saw, watching YouTube videos is pretty simple. Whenever you're watching a video, you'll find some controls at the bottom of the video player (and if you don't see them, just hover your mouse over the video). These allow you to adjust the volume, make the video full-screen, turn on captions, and more.

Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn more about the different controls in the YouTube video player. When you're done, try using these controls with the video above.

edit hotspots

Play/Pause 

Click here to pause the video. Click again to start playing the video. You can also click anywhere on the video or press the spacebar on your keyboard to play/pause.

Video Scrubber

The video scrubber shows your progress through the video. You can also click and drag the scrubber to quickly jump to a different part of a video.

Subtitles/Closed Captions

Click here to turn on captioning or subtitles for the video (if available). This is a great option if you aren't able to hear the video, or if you're watching a video in a different language.

Settings

Click the Settings icon to change things like annotations, autoplay, speed, and video quality.

Full Screen

If you want the video to fill your entire screen, click the Full Screen button. Click it again to return the video to its original size. Alternatively, you can press the Esc button on your keyboard.

Watch Later

Click here to add this video to your Watch Later playlist. This is an easy way to save a video so you can find it again later.

Share

Click here to share this video with others via link, social media, email, and more.

Audio Controls

Click here to adjust the sound for the video. You can click and drag the slider to turn the sound up or down, or click Mute to turn the sound off. If you can't hear a video, make sure to check these settings and ensure that the sound is turned up.

Understanding embedded videos

There are two basic ways to view a YouTube video: directly on the YouTube website, or as an embedded video on another site. The video above is hosted (or stored) by YouTube, but it's been embedded on our website. This means you can view it here without navigating to YouTube. If you prefer, however, you can click the small YouTube button near the bottom-right corner of the video player to watch the video directly on the YouTube website.

Advertisements and cards

YouTube videos are free to watch, but many now include some form of third-party advertisements, much like commercials on TV. Ads may appear before a video begins, although most can be skipped after a few seconds.

One other thing we’d like to talk about is cards, which are like pop-up notifications that can appear on any YouTube video. Creators add these to videos for a variety of reasons. For example, some people use end screens and annotations to link to other videos. We even use end screens on our YouTube channel to provide a link back to our tutorials.

Continue

Previous: What is YouTube?

Next:Signing in and Navigating YouTube

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