YouTube Will Let You Search Words Inside Videos Soon

Google has announced that it is working to improve YouTube search results. It also plans to allow users to create educational courses and some of these features are being tested already, meaning they are coming soon. 

According to the company, it is “piloting” a feature that allows you to search inside a YouTube video through its Search app. When you search for something and get video results, you can tap the “search in video button” button. This will allow you to type in a phrase to check if it appears in the audio transcript.

YouTube often generates this transcript automatically. Once you see the context you searched for, you will be able to tap on the timecode to go directly to the exact moment the phrase was spoken. 

Here is the new feature in action.

Do you struggle with skipping to the good part of the video? 👀
▶ ──🔘── 19:19
We're piloting the ability to search within videos on your phone's Search app. Just type in your query using the ‘Search in video’ feature & find exactly what you’re looking for.#GoogleForIndia pic.twitter.com/G3KIhpO7ow

— Google India (@GoogleIndia) December 19, 2022

The ability to search through a video’s transcript, either manually or auto-generated, has already been available for a while. However, it required opening the transcript and then using your browser to search on the page.

YouTube announced in October 2021 that it would be experimenting with mobile apps to allow people to search through the transcripts. The app has now made it possible to view the transcription on iOS and Android. However, it doesn’t offer the ability to search through the transcript just yet as it is still being tested. 

Courses

Google also announced Courses, which allows creators to sell educational videos and supplemental materials such as PDFs or images. These will be made available under the relevant videos section. YouTubers can use Courses to compete against paid educational services such as Skillshare or MasterClass, but they can also be offered for free. 

Google is also developing a feature that will make Courses and other YouTube videos more accessible in a variety of languages. This includes the ability to have multiple audio tracks, similar to what you can do with streaming services or movies.

This feature is currently being beta tested by Google in partnership with Indian hospitals and healthcare providers. You click on the settings button and then the audio track menu. The audio track menu will display all languages available for the video.

Google claims that it tests third-party AI translations and dubbing services. However, YouTube already has the ability to auto-transcribe captions so it would not be surprising to see a text-to-speech function in the future.

These features were revealed as part of the Google for India event and it is unclear if these will roll out in other regions as well.