How to Embed and Start YouTube Video At Certain Time

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In this tutorial, we will let you know how you can embed YouTube videos with a specific start time. You can also use the method to start a YouTube video at a certain time for sharing with friends.

Start Embedded YouTube Video at Specific time

YouTube is the most used search engine after its parent company Google. But the thing is most of the users are not aware of YouTube hacks or YouTube keyboard shortcut to get the most out of the video-sharing website. So, it is always useful to know about a few YouTube tricks. In today’s article, we bring to you one such YouTube trick which can be useful if you want to send or share a YouTube video that starts at a specific time.

Start YouTube Video At Certain Time

Did you ever send a YouTube video link to a friend or colleague and asked them to fast-forward it to a specific timestamp?

What if I told you that you can make it easier for your friend by sending a link that makes YouTube videos start at a particular time. This is not only convenient for your friend but even for you, as you are sure that they watch exactly what you wanted them to see.

So, let’s see how to get a YouTube video link that starts the video at a specific time.

1. Open the desired YouTube video on the browser of your choice.

2. Now, pause the video at the time from where you want it to start.

3. Below the video title, click on Share button.

4. You will see a link generated below the social sharing icons. Below the link, click on the checkbox to the left of Start.

5. Observe the video link. Something like ?t=01m15s (where 01m15s is time you paused the video) will be appended to the link.

Start YouTube Video At Certain Time

Now, you can copy that link and share it with your friends. The video will start playing at the specified time using this link. You may even test it yourself before sending it.

Using The YouTube Mobile App

The YouTube mobile app is available for both Android and iOS. It’s a great way to watch and share videos. However, unlike your desktop, you cannot simply right-click and share YouTube video at a specific time on mobile. With the mobile app, you have to modify the YouTube link, so it can start the video at a specific time. 

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open the YouTube mobile app and find the video that you want to share, then click the Share icon.
    Sharing a video in youtube mobile app
  2. From the list of share options available, copy the link, so you can paste it wherever you want.
    Copying the link of a youtube video in mobile
  3. Next, open the app you want to share the video on. I chose WhatsApp for this tutorial. Choose the chat you want to send the video, then paste the video URL.
    An Open whatsapp thread in mobile
  4. Before you send the link, you have to modify it so that when it’s clicked, it takes the recipient directly to the time stamp that you want. To do this, you need to add ?t=timestamp at the end of the link. The timestamp can be written in seconds or minutes and seconds.For example, if I wanted the recipient of my link to start viewing this video at the 1-minute mark, I could write either ?t=60 or ?t=1m at the end of the link. Once you’re done adding your timestamp, hit send.

    Sending a youtube link with time stamps in whatsapp for mobile device
  5. When your recipient clicks the link you sent, they’ll start the video at the time you specified with your modification. Here’s the video in question:
YouTube player

Sharing A YouTube Video With A Specific Start & End Time

As you’ve seen from the previous methods, it’s fairly easy to share a YouTube video with a start time. But in case you didn’t know, you can also share a YouTube video with a specific start and end time too. 

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Follow steps 1 – 4 from the previous section to add the start time to your video.
  2. Next, to add the end time, type in &end=timestamp. So, for example, the video in the previous section started at 2 minutes and 44 seconds. I want it to stop at 3 minutes, therefore I’d add &end=180 to the link.

    url bar with the youtube url with time stamps

Play the video below and you’ll see that it starts at 2 minutes and 44 seconds and then ends at 3 minutes:

Start Embedded YouTube Video At Certain Time

Coming to the next point, What if you want to Embed a YouTube video in a blog post or website but want to start it at a certain time? This will help in saving your readers or visitors time by playing the video from the crunch moment and avoiding unnecessary introduction or section.

Here’s how you can achieve it.

1. Open YouTube video you want to embed on the desired browser.

2. Click on the Share button below the Video title and select Embed Tab.

3. There is an HTML code which embeds the YouTube video. We need to edit this. Firstly, calculate the timestamp in seconds. Suppose if you want to start the video from 2 minutes and 44 seconds then it will be 2*60 + 44 = 164 seconds.

4. Now, in the code where you can see the video URL in src field append the following code – ?start=164 to the URL. You can also refer to the image below.

Embed YouTube Video with specific start time

Similarly, you can set a different time for the video to start.

You can copy the HTML code and paste it into your website HTML editor to embed it. On playing it will start at the time you specified in the code. For an example, play the video below it will start playing at 2 minutes and 44 seconds.

For a loyal YouTube user, we highly recommend you to go through following tutorials as well.

1. How to get Audio transcription of Video Files using YouTube

2. How to repeat certain parts of YouTube videos

3. How To Repeat Certain Parts Of YouTube Videos

FAQs

How do I share a YouTube video with a specific start and end time?

You can share a YouTube video with a specific start and end time by copying the YouTube link from the embed code, then adding ?start=timestamp&end=timestamp to the end of the link. The timestamp must be written in seconds in order for the link to work.

Final Words

We hope that you were able to start a YouTube video at a certain time and even embed a YouTube video at a specific time on your website. If you have any queries let us know in the comments.

Share this article on social media with your friends if you found it useful!

About The Author

  • Hemant Mendiratta

    Hemant Mendiratta is a co-founder of TechUntold and a passionate tech blogger, avid gamer, and social media guru who keenly monitors useful apps and gadgets. He is the ideator of our Instagram tool StoryHoot which allows watching Instagram stories anonymously. You can connect with him on: Facebook, Twitter.

Photo of author

Hemant Mendiratta

Hemant Mendiratta is a co-founder of TechUntold and a passionate tech blogger, avid gamer, and social media guru who keenly monitors useful apps and gadgets. He is the ideator of our Instagram tool StoryHoot which allows watching Instagram stories anonymously. You can connect with him on: Facebook, Twitter.

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