David Farnor | On 24, Jan 2016

Ever sat down to watch a 10-hour version of They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard? Then we have good news just for you: YouTube now allows you to loop videos.

Looping has been one of those features long awaited by users, alongside turning videos into GIFs. While YouTube has started to roll out support for the latter on a select number of videos, you still have to go to other sites or use third-party plugins to make an animated GIF of any clip you like. Fortunately, though, full looping of videos is now something you can do directly through YouTube itself.

Developer Henry Lim announced the new feature on Twitter, with users now able to turn on or off loops with only two clicks: one on your right mouse button to bring up YouTube’s menu and one on your left mouse button to select the “Loop” option.

Once selected, that means your favourite video will keep playing from the start again every time it finishes. It’s not perfect – you can’t, for example, make a loop of only a few seconds – but it’s another step towards making YouTube a viable music streaming option in a competitive market that now includes Apple’s subscription option and Amazon Prime Music as well as Spotify. For YouTube Red users, having no adverts and being able to quickly stick a track on repeat makes YouTube’s vast library of music videos an even more appealing option.

For everyone else, there’s now the option of They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard not just for 10 hours, but for eternity. All together now…

Add to Watchlist