There isn’t a streaming platform quite like YouTube, and Google deserves credit for that.

However, after acquiring YouTube in 2006, the Mountain View tech giant took some controversial decisions that served only the company’s interests more than those of its users.

The introduction of the autoplay feature was one of those moves. While it sounds promising on paper, YouTube hasn’t been able to address some of the major criticisms of the autoplay capability years after launching it.

I was tired of waiting for Google to fix it, and finally turned it off a few weeks ago.

However, I’m of two minds about whether it was a good call, especially after I discovered a gesture feature on YouTube after accidentally enabling the autoplay function.

I didn’t disable the autoplay feature again because I no longer need to turn it off to prevent videos from playing automatically. Here is how I did it.

How did I beat YouTube autoplay without turning it off?

The autoplay feature is turned on by default on YouTube, so if you use the platform, you need to turn it off from the upper side of the video screen.

It doesn’t play the video immediately after you finish one. Instead, it shows a countdown that tells you when the next video will play.

The “Up next” video suggestion plays in eight seconds, but you can tap the “Cancel” option if you want to explore YouTube’s suggestions below the video screen.

However, there is a downside to this method. If you cancel the “Up next” suggestion, there is no way to bring it back other than playing the video again and skipping to the end of the video.

I found a better way to do it. Instead of using the “Cancel” option, all you do is scroll up just below the video screen before the countdown ends.

It’ll stop the countdown and let you explore all the other video suggestions on the same page. The best part of using this gesture is that you don’t lose the autoplay video suggestion when you explore other recommendations.

The suggestion from autoplay stays visible on the video screen, and you can play whenever you feel like it, as there is no pressure to beat the countdown. It remains that way for as long as you keep exploring other video recommendations.

However, the timer starts again from the beginning when you scroll back to the first video recommendation that appears just below the video screen.

It isn’t a foolproof solution, but it gets the job done most of the time. I haven’t disabled the autoplay since I found the gesture.

You may still want to keep it turned off

I don’t recommend this gesture to everyone, especially those who are on a metered connection.

While it’s a clever trick to stop the countdown, it can easily get out of hand if you fall asleep while watching YouTube. It’ll keep playing videos on loop and exhaust all your data.

It can also worsen your recommendation feed because you aren’t awake to stop whatever video YouTube’s autoplay suggests, the ones that you’ve otherwise skipped.

It also carries the obvious risk of disrupting your sleep. Instead of watching that one video, you end up watching a few more. You spend more hours scrolling than you should.

On the other hand, when the video stops playing, that sends a gentle reminder that it may be time to call it a day.

Another major issue is that you need to act within eight seconds, so you must still be cautious when you reach the end of the video.

In other words, no matter which way you try to manipulate YouTube’s autoplay, even the best method doesn’t work effectively when your attention is divided. So, be careful what you are signing up for.

YouTube’s autoplay taught me an important lesson

Denying users the ability to choose is bad, and you have to give credit to Google for not imposing autoplay on everyone.

While it still doesn’t make autoplay a good idea, it made me think deeply about the relationship between the company’s intentions and the feature’s actual potential to benefit the user.

As much as I dislike YouTube wanting users to watch more, the discovery of the gesture taught me something important.

Instead of being suspicious about why a feature exists, it’s better to understand what it’s trying to do and how you can make it work for you.

Features like autoplay exist everywhere, but the trick is not to fight them, but to try to get the best of both worlds.

On YouTube’s autoplay, for instance, I can stop the countdown and explore other video suggestions on the same page just by swiping up.

This way, I don’t lose the “Up next” video suggestion and still have the freedom to decide what I want to watch next. It works for me now.