Hi guys, Just a quick note: English isn't my native language, so I used a translator to help with this post. Hopefully everything still makes sense.
If you watch long YouTube videos like lectures, podcasts, tutorials, or deep dives, you're probably familiar with timestamps. They're one of those simple features that make long videos much easier to navigate.
At the same time, you've probably noticed that getting to them isn't always very convenient.
It's not exactly a huge problem, obviously, nobody's losing sleep over having to click an extra button. But if you want to see the timestamps, you usually have to scroll down, click the tiny "Show more" button, expand the description, and only then can you access them.
It's just one extra click and a couple of seconds, no big deal, but it turns out there are plenty of people who absolutely hate unnecessary clicks. The kind of people who are obsessed with productivity, efficiency, and making interfaces as frictionless as possible. For them, even a small annoyance is enough reason to start looking for a better solution.
https://preview.redd.it/g59h7am21l6h1.png?width=1205&format=png&auto=webp&s=0a8a8ee7c5384bfc003ec11376fafc1db7823c24
I'm not quite that extreme myself, but honestly, if I can avoid an extra click, I'd rather avoid it. That's basically why I started building this extension. The idea was simple: display the timestamps automatically in a sidebar next to the video as soon as the page loads.
Like many side projects, it started as something I built for myself, after using it for a while, I figured other people might find it useful too, so I decided to release it publicly.
So what does Timestamps actually do?
https://preview.redd.it/2sqr5e8c2l6h1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=71fdbfcff8cf651ef40fd875512101c98c60baf5
When you open a YouTube video, the extension automatically finds all the timestamps in the video's description and displays them in a clean sidebar next to the player.
The goal was to make it feel like a native YouTube feature rather than something bolted on afterward. Open a video, and all the chapters are already visible, no scrolling, no opening the description, no extra clicks.
Just click the section you want and jump straight to it.
If a video doesn't have timestamps, the extension simply doesn't activate. In that case, YouTube looks exactly the same as it always has. No timestamps means there's nothing for the extension to display.
A couple of downsides:
1. Desktop only
At least for now, it only works on desktop because it's a browser extension. Most people watch YouTube on phones through the official app, where browser extensions aren't really an option.
2. Occasionally things can break
This one surprised me when I first released it.
YouTube constantly runs interface experiments and A/B tests. Different users can see slightly different layouts at the same time. Because of that, an extension that works perfectly for one group of users might display incorrectly for another.
At first I spent way too much time worrying about this until I learned that it's simply part of building tools around a platform as large as YouTube.
Whenever I get reports about display issues, I usually investigate them, release a fix, and submit an update to Google. The actual fix often takes a day or two. The review process can take another day or two depending on how quickly the update gets approved.
The bonus feature I never planned!!! (This is the reason why I decided to publish this article in this subreddit)
While testing the extension, I accidentally discovered something unexpected.
Honestly, this little discovery might end up being almost as useful as the main feature itself.
Most people aren't exactly fans of YouTube ads. Especially those long ads before a video starts, or the videos that seem to get interrupted every few minutes.
During testing, I noticed that if an ad starts playing and I immediately click any timestamp in the sidebar, YouTube jumps forward and the Skip button appears almost instantly. Instead of sitting through 20 or 30 seconds of ads, I just click a timestamp and move on.
The interesting part is that this isn't an ad blocker, a hack, or any kind of workaround that modifies YouTube. As far as I can tell, YouTube itself handles the timestamp jump and ends up moving past the ad segment as part of that process.
Will YouTube eventually patch this? Maybe. I honestly have no idea, but at the time of writing, it seems to work.
The funny thing is that I found this completely by accident while stress-testing the extension and clicking every button I could think of.
Now it's become part of my normal workflow. I'm watching a video, an ad starts, I click a visible timestamp, and I'm back to the content almost immediately.
The only downside is that it only works on videos that actually have timestamps.
When I first discovered this behavior, I considered highlighting it in the Chrome Web Store listing. Then I realized YouTube could change things tomorrow and I'd end up promising something that no longer works.
So I left it out of the official description. Still, I thought it was worth mentioning here because it's genuinely useful. I also have a few ideas that might make the experience even better in future updates.
Why this feels especially relevant right now?
https://preview.redd.it/4xvxqly73l6h1.png?width=550&format=png&auto=webp&s=46e1cbf736d1090071afc3c81d6d155b211ca1ba
Over the last few years, YouTube has become much more aggressive with ads.
At the same time, traditional ad blockers have had a harder time keeping up. YouTube actively detects and limits many of them, and users occasionally run into restrictions or warning messages because of the blockers they're using.
Of course, YouTube Premium solves the problem completely, but not everyone wants to pay for another monthly subscription.
Who might find Timestamps useful?
You might like it if you:
· Watch long educational videos and want faster navigation
· Frequently jump between different sections of podcasts, lectures, or tutorials
· Get annoyed by YouTube ads but don't want another subscription
· Like making small improvements to your daily workflow
· Enjoy trying new tools and browser extensions
If any of those sound familiar, it's probably worth giving it a shot
How to install it?
The extension is available in the Chrome Web Store and takes about 10 seconds to install.
No registration, no account creation, and no email verification required.
Just search for: Timestamps – Handy Timestamps Right of Video
or use the direct link below 👇👇👇.
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/timestamps-handy-timestam/gjaapmibjaaimjblibkcnehojjnppfhp
If you're using browsers like Edge, Opera, or Firefox, there may be ways to install it there as well, although the process is usually less straightforward than it is in Chrome. I haven't tested every browser yet, so if you've tried it outside Chrome, I'd be interested to hear about your experience.
Feedback is welcome
If you decide to try the extension, I'd genuinely appreciate your feedback.
Does everything display correctly on your setup?
Does the timestamp navigation work as expected?
And if you happen to test the ad-skipping behavior I mentioned earlier, I'd be curious to know whether it works for you as well.
Questions, suggestions, bug reports, feature requests - i'll do my best to respond and help however I can.
Thanks for reading.
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