A trick that allows you to link to a specific start time of a YouTube video directly from your phone

You can add a timestamp to any YouTube video with just a few clicks from the website on your computer, but not from the YouTube app for iOS or Android. Until YouTube adds “start time”when sharing videos from the mobile app, you’ll have to use one of these workarounds on your phone or tablet.

Why use generic YouTube links with start times at all?

Linking a start time to a YouTube video is an easy way to bookmark a specific part of a video so you can come back to it later and link to it. It’s also ideal when you want family, friends, and followers to jump straight to interesting content while skipping the part they don’t need to see. For example, if you or someone else only needs to learn how to remove the glove compartment door in a car, the video can start from the moment of disassembly, bypassing the intro and unnecessary chatter.

Whenever you click the share button for a video on the official YouTube app for Android or iOS, you can only copy or share the main link of the video – there is no option to add a start timestamp to the video’s URL as a desktop. The website does, but there are other ways to share timestamped videos from your mobile device.

Skip to section:

1. Add timestamp using chapters
2. Add Timestamp Manually
3. Add timestamp with desktop site
4. Add timestamp with shortcut (iOS only)
5. Add timestamp with third party apps

Adding a timestamp using chapters

In a 2021 update to the YouTube app for iOS and Android, Google added the ability to share videos at specific start times. However, this only works when video creators manually add chapters to their video descriptions. Only a small percentage of YouTube creators provide links to chapters, so you’ll need to use one of the other options below when chapters are missing.

First, find the video with the chapters. Then manually play or drag the playhead to the chapter you want to start the video with, tap the title of the chapter above the playhead to open the chapter windows, then click the share icon next to the desired chapter. From the Share menu, click Copy Link, or share it on an app like Facebook, Messages, Telegram, Twitter, or WhatsApp to automatically paste the link into your draft.

Or open the description of the video by touching its name. Immediately you should see a list of chapters where you can click to play the video starting from it. To share a chapter from here, click “View All”and you’ll see the same chapter windows as above where you can share the timestamped chapter however you want.

You can even ignore the chapter list when you first open the video description and click “More”in the description instead of expanding everything written by the author. You should see the chapters recorded as a list and you can click on the time to jump to that chapter in the video. You will then need to use one of the other two methods above to share the chapter.

Add Timestamp Manually

If the chapter isn’t specific enough for you, and the video doesn’t even have chapters, your best bet is to manually add a timestamp to the query string.

Find the video, click Share, then select Copy Link. This will save a link to the video on your phone’s clipboard. Then paste the link where you plan to share it. Also, you can choose an app like Facebook, Messages, Telegram, Twitter or WhatsApp after clicking “Share”to automatically paste the link into your draft.

After manually pasting the link, add one of the following formats. You can use all seconds (# or #s); all minutes (#m); all hours (#h); minutes and seconds (#m#s); hours and minutes (#h#m); hours, minutes and seconds (#h#m#s); or hours and seconds (#h#s). Just make sure the selected time format is followed by a? t= where the actual numbers replace the # character.

• ?t=#
• ?t=#s
• ?t=#m
• ?t=#m#s
• ?t=#h
• ?t=#h#m
• ?t=#h#m#s
• ?t=#h#s

Let’s say there is a 3 hour video and I wanted to associate the start time with 1 hour 29 minutes and 15 seconds (01:29:15). With the above formats, it would look like this:

• ?t=5355
• ?t=5355s
• ?t=89.25 m
• ?t=89m15s
• ?t=1.4875 h
• ?t=1h29.25m
• ?t=1h29m15s
• ?t=1h1755s

They work for the youtu.be shortened links that YouTube uses by default when you click the share button in the app. Here is an example:

• youtube.be/BwaVOttz1ws? t=1h29m15s

If you’re viewing the video in a web browser such as Safari, Chrome, or Firefox, the Share button should still be visible in the YouTube interface. However, you can also copy the link from the URL bar and this URL is not structured using youtu.be short links. Instead, it will format them as:

• youtube.com/watch?v=VEDlIEy6FJM

When a question mark (?) appears in a URL, you will need to use an ampersand (&) for the timestamp instead of another question mark. So for a 19 second timestamp (00:00:19) it would be:

• &t=19
• &t=19 s
• &t=0.3167 m
• &t=0m19s
• &t=0.005278 h
• &t=0h0.3167m
• &t=0h0m19s
• &t=0h19s

So our example would look like this:

• youtube.com/watch?v=VEDliEy6FJM &t=19

No matter which URL style you choose, it will change in the web browser’s URL bar for all seconds except for the “s”after the video has loaded. This is also what the timestamps will look like when using the YouTube desktop website to capture share links with a start time – either via the Share link with the Start At checkbox checked, or by right-clicking on the video and “Copy video URL at current time”. “

If you only want to share a specific clip in a YouTube video, you can use the “embed”link with a different query string in the video’s URL. For example, a video that starts at 10 seconds and ends at 30 seconds looks like the following link. However, keep in mind that embedded links like this usually only work in browsers, so the video won’t stop if it’s played from within the YouTube app.

• youtube.com/embed/VEDliEy6FJM? start=10&end=30

Adding a Timestamp Using the Desktop

If you don’t want to manually enter a timestamp at the end of a video’s URL, you can ask YouTube to do it for you. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as sharing a video from a mobile app or a mobile web app. The key is to request the desktop version of the YouTube web app in your web browser of choice.

In a web browser, navigate to the YouTube video you want to share at a specific time. You can copy the URL from a shared link or YouTube app. If you’re searching for a video on your browser’s search engine, clicking on a YouTube video result will likely open the video in your YouTube app. To avoid this, press and hold the link instead, then open it in another tab and go to that tab.

Once you have the video loaded in your browser, request the YouTube desktop site. This will depend on your web browser, but it shouldn’t take more than a few clicks. Here’s how to do it from some of the more popular mobile web browsers:

• Google Chrome: Click on the vertical or horizontal ellipsis, then click on PC Site or Request Desktop Site.
• Apple Safari: Click the “AA”icon, then click Request Desktop.
• Samsung Internet: Click the three-line icon, then click Desktop Site.
• Mozilla Firefox: Click the three-line menu icon or the vertical ellipsis, then click Request a Desktop Site or Desktop Site.
• Opera: Click the three-line menu icon or the vertical ellipsis, then click Desktop Site.
• Microsoft Edge: Click the ellipsis and then “View Desktop Site”in the options grid.

Once you get to the desktop version of YouTube, play the video, navigate to the specific point where you want the video to start, pause it, and hit the share button next to the thumb up/down icons.

In the pop-up window, check the “Start at [##:##]”box. The time for the current frame of the video will now be next to the box and timestamp in the rendered URL. You can also manually enter the time in the box next to “Start at”if you’re in the wrong place in the video.

Now click Copy or copy the URL manually to save it to your clipboard so you can paste it anywhere. You can also share the timestamped video via social networking site, email, text, etc. and timestamp will be enabled.

Also, while paused, you can press and hold on the video image and then select “Copy video URL at current time”to immediately copy the timestamped URL to the clipboard. The long press method is a bit buggy in some browsers, so it’s best to just check the “Start with”box.

Adding a timestamp using a shortcut (iOS only)

Getting the timestamp from a YouTube video with JavaScript is not an easy task in Shortcuts. However, there are more primitive methods for creating a shortcut, such as a shortcut that asks you to enter the time manually. It’s not super convenient, but it might be faster than the methods above.

One such option is the “YouTube Start at Time”shortcut created by RoutineHub developer SpencerTambo. With it, you can quickly add a timestamp to a YouTube video with just a few taps. You can download the shortcut using the iCloud link below or from the RoutineHub shortcut page (where you can find updates).

• iCloud Link: YouTube Start at Time v2.0 (Free)

When the Shortcuts app opens, click Add Shortcut to add it to your library. You can also tap the ellipsis (•••) icon on a map before adding it to view all of its activities.

Now find the video on the YouTube mobile app or on the mobile site – it doesn’t matter. Pause it where you want the timestamp and remember the minutes and seconds to enter them later. Then tap Share, then swipe to the end of the list and tap More to open the default shared sheet. Find and tap the new “YouTube Start at Time”shortcut in the action list.

The shortcut will ask you to enter a timestamp in minutes and seconds. Enter the minutes, or leave it at zero if you only want to use seconds, then click Done. Then enter the seconds, or leave it at zero if you’re only using minutes, then click Done again. Use option 2 above to convert hours to minutes and seconds if needed, or just edit the shortcut to include the hour hint.

The privacy prompt should ask you to allow the label to share content. Click “Always Allow”so you don’t have to do this for future promotions.

The general sheet will reappear. You now have several options to share your new timestamped YouTube video, such as copying it to your clipboard, or sharing it directly with any number of native and third-party apps.

Add a timestamp using third party apps.

Some app developers take matters into their own hands when it comes to getting the features they want in the YouTube app, and this is where third-party YouTube apps come to the rescue. Although you won’t find any of these apps in the App Store or Play. Store, you can find them in alternative app stores like AltStore and F-Droid.

Installing an APK on an Android device is relatively easy, but downloading an IPA on an iPhone or iPad without jailbreak is a bit more difficult. I won’t go into any of those processes here, but be aware that you can install third-party apps that enhance YouTube, including simple timestamp sharing. One is YouTube Vanced for Android, and the others are YouTube++ and uYou+ for iOS and iPadOS.