How To Add YouTube Timestamps

Do you want to make your YouTube videos easier to navigate and more engaging for your viewers?

Timestamping is a great way to do this! With timestamping, you can create clickable timestamp links in the video description that jump to different points in the video or direct viewers quickly and easily. In this blog post, we’ll talk about what timestamping is, why it’s important, and how you can add timestamps to your YouTube videos. So let’s get started – read on for our guide!

What’s Timestamping?

Timestamping is an incredibly convenient way to access exact moment information on media you consume. This could be a specific scene in a YouTube video or a particular quote you really enjoyed on a podcast! Timestamps allow you to snip the exact time or position of a specific moment by adding the current timestamp display format — for example: minutes, seconds and milliseconds.

The duration or any other current position of a video can be determined by changing the timestamp value. Additionally, a single click can take you to a specific part of a video, so you don’t have to sit through long video clips just to find a specific topic you are looking for. This makes it easier for viewers to quickly jump to their desired part of the video, which boosts engagement and saves the audience watch time on YouTube videos or other forms of media.

Different Types Of Timestamps

Timestamp is a useful time marker function that can be applied to entire videos or specific moments during the video. Many industries – but especially within the video industry – are incorporating timestamps into their projects in order to streamline their processes and make the video content easier to navigate. There are a couple different types of timestamps out there, however. Here’s a short list of timestamps and some of the benefits to timestamping:

• Computer Software Data Timestamps: Computer software uses timestamps to track the creation, modification, and access times of data. These timestamps record the date and time of a particular event, such as a file being created or a user accessing a system. These timestamps are beneficial for a variety of purposes, such as auditing and tracking changes to data, or determining when a file was last accessed. They can also be used to ensure that data is kept up-to-date and to identify any potential issues or errors.
• Audio Timestamps: Audio timestamps are used to precisely synchronize audio recordings with other types of media, such as video or text. This is particularly important in the fields of film, television, and live events, where accurate audio syncing is especially important for creating a seamless and polished final product. Providing precise moments of when an audio event within a recording occurred, allows for easy editing and post-production work, as well as the ability to sync multiple audio tracks together. Additionally, audio timestamps can be used to synchronize multiple audio sources in live events, such as in a concert or theater production.
• Video timestamps: Video timestamps are used to precisely synchronize entire video recordings with other types of media, such as audio or text. It is commonly seen on video hosting platforms such as YouTube, which creates automatic timestamps, listing the time in minutes, seconds, and milliseconds for the viewer. One benefit of timestamp functions on videos also helps viewers navigate different parts of the video easily. Besides, video timestamps are also a great tool for security and surveillance systems, as it allows for easy identification and tracking of events.
• Camera Timestamps: Camera timestamps are used to record the exact date and time that a photo or video was taken. This information is embedded in the metadata of the photo or video file, and can be read by software, devices, video galleries, or the photo gallery that support reading metadata. A few benefits of timestamp for cameras is that it can be particularly useful for photographers, journalists and other professionals who need to keep track of when a photo or video was captured.

How To Make Timestamps On Your Own YouTube Videos

Have you ever found yourself watching online videos and wished that you could go back to certain key moments in the video? Maybe your attention span didn’t last very long, and you have to review the video content again. With YouTube timestamping, current time is displayed along the timeline of the video, so you can easily jump to any exact key moment without having to search for it in the video description or guess the timestamp position.

This is a helpful highlighting feature that allows users to quickly access their preferred sections of information, no matter how long or short the content is. So, next time you are looking for specific information in a video, take advantage of YouTube’s great timestamping feature!

Follow these steps to make timestamps on your own YouTube videos in YouTube Studio:

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.

2. From the left menu, select Content.

3. Click the video that you’d like to edit.

4. In the Description, add a list of timestamps and titles.

5. Make sure that the first timestamp you list starts with 00:00. 

6. Your video should have at least three timestamps listed in ascending order.

7. The minimum length for video chapters is 10 seconds.

 5. Click SAVE.

How To Add Timestamps To Any YouTube Video

Inspod can help you add timestamps to any YouTube video! It works as a platform for you to capture inspiring moments via timestamps while streaming YouTube videos or even podcast episodes and share your insights out as a link , all in the app.

The advantage of Inspod compared with YouTube timestamps is that, with Inspod, you don’t have to pause the video and type the timestamp down to capture a precise moment as in the YouTube Studio. In Inspod, you can simply capture the current timestamps by clicking the “Capture a Moment” button. You can watch YouTube videos and add notes to the timestamped key moments to quickly store the knowledge with the original clip.It can also be easy to access earlier video segments – all you have to do is to click on the timestamps and jump back to review the key moments.

If you are a viewer who wants to leave a timestamp link on current videos you’re watching, or a creator who would like to add a time-stamped outline in the description box on your own YouTube video, you can just copy and paste the timecodes from Inspod timestamps back to the YouTube platform, which could save a lot of time and typing effort. Additionally, the time stamped notes you make for a video in Inspod is sharable to anyone with a share link. Inspod has a useful share tool on all platforms, from a mobile app on an Android device to the web version, which can be easily included in video description or blog posts and provide a neat and organized viewer experience.

Provide a brief step-by-step tutorial and an infographic to educate the audience how to create YouTube timestamps with Inspod.

How to Add Timestamps to YouTube Videos with Inspod

Step 1. Search for your YouTube video on Inspod.

Step2. Capture timestamps while watching the video.

Step3. Share the note link

Step4. Put the link in your video description or social media 

Wrap Up

In conclusion, YouTube timestamps are a useful tool for both creators and viewers. For content creators, they allow for easy navigation and organization of their videos, sharing the video notes on social media platforms to promote audience retention and attract potential audience by the episode summaries. Creators can also take notes for other creators’ videos to collect inspiration. For viewers, they allow for quick access to specific points in a video without having to manually search for them. Additionally, timestamps can also be used as a form of engagement, as they encourage viewers to interact with the content in a more specific way. Overall, timestamps are a simple but powerful feature that can greatly enhance the viewing experience on YouTube.

Based on the statistics (Apr. 2023) made by Viralyft, YouTube boasts an extensive user base of over 2.527 billion individuals worldwide. With the increasing popularity of platforms like YouTube, it’s important to understand the role that timestamps play in ensuring the quality and accuracy of the videos we watch. As a result, making good use of video timestamps is becoming increasingly important and will only continue to be so in the future. Using an app like Inspod can help you watch YouTube videos and easily make timestamps at the same time, all in one app. So, why Inspod?

• Easy timestamping in one tap
• Make timestamps while watching YouTube videos
• The world’s first podcast and YouTube annotation service that integrates both online streaming platforms
• Get more space to add notes to the timestamps
• Share function of the timestamp links, available anywhere

Inspod has the ability to sync across all devices, including the web version, Android and iOS app. Thus, you can make timestamps anytime, from anywhere and check them on different devices as any ideas strike. If you like to learn new things or focus on your studies on YouTube, we especially recommend checking out the web version with a larger screen — it’s easier to type notes on a desktop, too!

Download Inspod iOS or Android today on your mobile devices, or visit the Inspod web app here.