YouTube's Updated Autoplay Experiment

There's a new version of YouTube's autoplay experiment. Back in August, YouTube started to test an autoplay feature that automatically plays related videos. The feature is enabled by default and you can disable it.

The updated experiment has at least 3 improvements. YouTube now remembers when you disable autoplay and the feature is no longer enabled again when you play a new video. Another change is the "up next" screen that's displayed before the next video starts playing.

If you're not using the browser, autoplay is temporarily disabled and you'll see this message: "Busy? We've paused autoplay". When you switch to the YouTube tab, autoplay is enabled again.

Here's how you can enable the experimental feature. If you use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer 8+:

1. open youtube.com in a new tab

2. load your browser's developer console:

* Chrome or Opera 15+ - press Ctrl+Shift+J for Windows/Linux/ChromeOS or Command-Option-J for Mac

* Firefox - press Ctrl+Shift+K for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-K for Mac

* Internet Explorer 8+ - press F12 and select the "Console" tab

* Safari 6+ - if you haven't enabled the Develop menu, open Preferences from the Safari menu, go to the Advanced tab and check "Show Develop menu in menu bar". Close Preferences and then press Command-Option-C to show the console.

* Opera 12 - press Ctrl+Shift+I for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-I for Mac, then click "Console".

3. paste the following code which changes a YouTube cookie:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=R8LngOvykFw; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

4. press Enter and close the console.

Open a random video to see the autoplay feature. To disable the experiment, use the same instructions, but replace the code from step 3 with this one:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();