Setting Default Playback Speed For YouTube App

As we all know, YouTube has made it possible for users to increase or decrease the playback speed of any video on the platform, ranging from 0.25 to 2 times the normal speed. The feature is useful, for instance, if you wish to watch a short clip of a movie in slow motion. Another example is when you think a video is too slow and you want to speed it up.

Now, most people probably won’t know this, but there is a way for us to make the default speed of all of the future YouTube videos we watch to play at a certain speed (besides the normal speed) without having to set it at the start of the video. Before we start, however, let’s discuss why people need to change the default speed in the first place.

Some people may use YouTube videos as a reference in their research for work or education-related purposes. To save time, they can opt to raise the default speed to, let’s say, 1.5 times faster, assuming they have enough comprehensive skill to accommodate for that. On the other hand, while doing this kind of activity, other people may find it difficult if the videos move at a normal pace. This can happen frequently for folks that are not native speakers—e.g. watching English videos are most likely more challenging for people who speak it as a second language.

How to Change the Default Playback Speed for YouTube on PC

To alter the default video speed playback on PC, there’s one Chrome extension that comes in handy: Improve YouTube! (Open-Source for YouTube). Improve YouTube is an extension aimed to add more tweaks to the settings already available on the site. According to the app’s official description, Improve YouTube has more than 42 unique features that you can use.

You can change the theme and appearance of the site as well as adding shortcuts to make the workflow more efficient, among other things. For instance, apart from the normal and night mode, you have access to other types of themes such as dawn, sunset, and night to keep you from getting bored. Additionally, in terms of appearance, you can alter the logo of YouTube—or remove it altogether—or hide the like/dislike button, description, annotations, and many other things. You can do almost anything to all of the aspects related to the appearance of the site.

Setting the Default Playback Speed

Before we begin, make sure you already installed the extension on the Chrome browser on your PC through this link. Once you do so, follow this step-by-step guide.

Open the YouTube website in your Google Chrome browser. At the top of the browser, you should see a new extension icon resembling the play button of YouTube, click it.
Afterward, you should see a bunch of options. Click on the Player option.
Next, set the Playback speed slider to the number you want, which will be default playback speed every time you watch a video on YouTube. Another nice thing to note here is that the slider can be incremented by 0.05 instead of the usual 0.25. In other words, you can set the playback speed to 1.10 or 1.15, which is an improvement in terms of precision compared to YouTube’s own playback speed setting that can only give you either 1 or 1.25 with nothing in between.

There you go, now you can set the default playback speed with no hassle. This method works in any PC regardless of the operating system, as long as the Improve YouTube extension itself supports it.

How About the YouTube App on Android/iOS?

Sadly, no known app or add-on lets you change the default playback setting for the YouTube app. You need to set it manually every time you watch a new video.

Still, if you really wish to have the default playback speed option in your smartphone or tablet, there’s one little trick that you can try. You can use a PC to Android streaming service, assuming you’ve installed the aforementioned extension on your computer. One such app that provides it is called Splashtop. Splashtop is free-to-use with paid subscription options.

This way, you can remotely operate your PC and stream the display to your smartphone. For convenience, set your phone’s display orientation to landscape. Overall, in my experience when using the app, the input lag is relatively low, so you can expect to get a comfortable usage. Don’t simply take my word for it – try it and see for yourself!