If you're watching a YouTube video and want to skim through a section without scrubbing, you can hold your finger on the screen to temporarily play at 2x speed.

Just hold your finger anywhere on the video. It jumps to 2x speed while you're pressing and drops back to your normal speed the moment you let go.

Handy for long intros, sponsor segments, slow walkthroughs — anything you want to push through without losing your place in the video.

Good to know

• This is specific to the YouTube app — it doesn't work in other video players
• It's a temporary boost, not a setting change. Your preferred playback speed stays the same when you release
• Works in both portrait and fullscreen mode
• Watch out if you're casting to another device: if your iPhone is connected to YouTube on Apple TV (or any other screen), holding to fast-forward can disrupt the stream — expect buffering, sync issues, or playback restarts. Use this on phone-only playback.