How to add chapters to your YouTube Videos

Video chapters on YouTube allow viewers to quickly navigate to a part of the video containing the answer to their question. Viewers tend to abandon a video if they don’t immediately get the answer to what they’re seeking because it’s usually located later in the video. If you’re a creator, this guide shows you how to add video chapters to your YouTube videos.

The chapters feature was introduced in early 2020 and is one of the best features of YouTube. Google started testing the feature on Desktops andbest Chromebooksand expanded it to the Android and iOS apps after a couple of months of testing.

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How to add chapters to a YouTube video

There are two ways to add chapters to a YouTube video. You can use the automatic chapters feature and the description box. The latter is more reliable.

How to manually add chapters to a YouTube video

Adding chapters to new content is easy, but doing the same in your previously uploaded content could be tedious. And that’s when the automatic chapters feature comes to the rescue.

Let YouTube auto-add chapters to your videos

This feature isn’t perfect, as it uses AI to create chapters. In our experience, it works great if a video contains a list of things. Hence, you may need to review the video after enabling it to iron out any abnormalities. If you’re thinking of starting a new YouTube channel anduploading your first video, add chapters now to avoid the burden.

Add chapters to videos on the YouTube Studio app

Double-tap with two fingers on both the right and left sides to skip to the next or previous chapters.

Chapters not showing up?

If you do not see chapters in your YouTube video, check the following:

The chapters feature is a boon for creators and viewers alike

As a creator on YouTube, audience retention shows how long people watch your videos. The longer they stay, the more YouTube recommends your video and ranks it higher. Enabling chapters and dividing the answer into different sections helps grow your retention rate. It also helps people find answers to their questions without watching the entire video. Therefore, it’s a win-win for both the audience and creators.

In the last few years, Google has introduced great features for viewers and creators, and a few of them arehelpful but hidden. If a video doesn’t have chapters, as a viewer, there’s another way tofind specific parts in a YouTube videowithout having to watch the whole thing.

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