Feature update - April 2026
YouTube Clips Is Gone: What Happened and What to Do Instead (2026)
YouTube quietly removed the ability to create new viewer Clips in April 2026. Here is exactly what changed, what replaces Clips for regular viewers, what creators get instead, and what tools fill the gap for sharing specific moments.
YouTube Clips - by the numbers
What the feature was and why it mattered.
What was YouTube Clips?
YouTube launched Clips in 2021 as a way for viewers - not just creators - to share specific moments from videos and live streams. The feature placed a "Clip" button below eligible videos. You could select a segment anywhere between 5 and 60 seconds, give it a title, and share a link that would play only that portion on a dedicated clip page. The original video's creator would receive a notification, and the clip page showed attribution back to the full video.
Clips became especially popular in gaming and sports communities. Fans would clip standout moments from long streams and live match broadcasts, sharing them on social media without needing to download anything or use third-party editing tools. Some creators found that fan-made Clips drove meaningful new viewership back to their channels. According to Android Authority, some fans even turned clipping into a profitable side hustle, building audiences around curated highlight clips.
For casual viewers, Clips solved a real problem: you wanted to share a specific 30-second moment with a friend, but sending the full two-hour video link was awkward. Clips let you extract exactly what you wanted without any software.
The limitations that ultimately doomed it
Clips had a hard 60-second ceiling, which was often not enough for meaningful moments in lectures, long-form interviews, or documentary-style content. The clip link sent viewers to a separate clip page rather than the original video, which creators disliked because it reduced visibility of their channel. And the feature was not available on all videos - creators could opt out, and some content types were excluded by default. These friction points meant Clips had a narrower audience than YouTube may have hoped for when the feature launched.
What changed in April 2026?
On April 17, 2026, YouTube confirmed that it was removing the ability for viewers to create new Clips. The button disappeared from eligible videos. Existing Clips remain viewable - if someone shared a Clip link before April 2026, that link still works. But no new Clips can be created by viewers.
YouTube's official explanation, according to reporting from Tubefilter, was straightforward: "sharing a video with a designated start time is simpler." The platform also noted that "a number of third-party tools with advanced clipping features" exist for users who need more control than a timestamp link provides.
The move is part of a broader strategy to shift clipping control toward creators rather than viewers. YouTube acknowledged that "community clipping is an important way for creators to reach new audiences" but is redirecting focus toward creator-controlled tools rather than viewer-generated clips. The platform pointed third-party clipping specialists like OpusClip and MrBeast's Vyro as the future for advanced clip creation.
How people watch YouTube - device breakdown
Why mobile timestamp sharing is the key change.
Source: DarVideo YouTube Statistics 2026. With two-thirds of YouTube viewing on mobile, expanding timestamp sharing to phones is a significant practical improvement - even if it doesn't replace Clips exactly.
What replaces Clips for viewers: Share at Timestamp
The direct replacement for viewers is the "Share at Timestamp" feature. This was already available on desktop - a checkbox in the share panel that lets you set a start time before copying the link. As of April 2026, it has officially rolled out to mobile phones and tablets as well, which is where most YouTube viewing happens.
How to use Share at Timestamp on desktop
Pause the video at the moment you want to share. Click the Share button below the video. In the share popup, check the box labeled "Start at" - the current video time will be pre-filled. Adjust if needed, then copy the link. Anyone who opens it will start watching from that exact second.
How to use Share at Timestamp on mobile (new)
Tap the Share button while watching a video. In the share popup, look for the timestamp toggle - Social Media Today reports it appears in the top-right corner of the share popup. Enable it and adjust the start time, then share via any app on your phone.
The key difference from Clips
Share at Timestamp creates a link that starts playback at a specific moment - but there is no end point. The video plays from that second onward, through to the end or until the viewer stops. Clips defined both a start and an end, creating a self-contained segment that stopped automatically. If you needed to share exactly the 12-second reaction at 47:33 and nothing else, Clips handled that cleanly. Share at Timestamp doesn't. For sharing a specific starting point in a longer conversation, though, timestamp links are actually more natural - the viewer gets full context and can continue watching.
What creators get instead of viewer Clips
While viewers lost the ability to create Clips, creators are getting a better set of tools with defined start and end points. The creator side of this change is actually an upgrade. According to Tubefilter's coverage, YouTube is rolling out three creator-side improvements:
Video Clips in YouTube Studio (already live)
Creators can already use the Video Clips tool inside YouTube Studio to clip segments from their own uploaded videos and archived live streams. Unlike the old viewer Clips, these creator-made clips can be published as proper content on the channel, with full creator control over title, thumbnail, and description. The resulting clip lives on the creator's channel rather than a generic clip page.
Video Clips for Shorts (coming later in 2026)
YouTube is building a direct pipeline from longer videos to Shorts through the Video Clips feature. Creators will be able to clip a segment from a long-form video and publish it directly as a Short, keeping all platform monetization and algorithm benefits. This is aimed at making it easier to repurpose long content into the short-form format without leaving YouTube Studio.
Auto-suggestions for clippable moments (coming later in 2026)
YouTube is working on an AI-powered feature that will automatically identify the most shareable moments within a creator's videos. Rather than the creator manually scrubbing through hours of footage to find clip-worthy segments, the system will surface suggestions ranked by predicted shareability. No confirmed date has been given for this feature.
The pattern is clear: YouTube is moving clipping from something anyone could do to something creators control. This addresses creator complaints that fan-made Clips sometimes stripped context, misrepresented content, or drove attention away from the full video.
Sharing a YouTube moment - effort comparison
Steps required for each method.
Key insight: Share at Timestamp is 2 steps fewer than old Clips for sending a moment to someone else. For saving a moment to your own library for later, a dedicated timestamp bookmark tool requires only a single action.
Third-party tools for advanced clipping
If you need true start-and-end clip creation from YouTube content - for repurposing, social media, or content creation - YouTube itself directed users toward third-party tools when announcing the Clips removal. These are the main options:
OpusClip
AI-powered clip creation from long-form video. OpusClip analyzes a video and automatically identifies the most engaging moments, then generates clips with captions optimized for social media formats. It handles the end-point problem that Share at Timestamp cannot: you get a properly bounded clip, not a link to a starting point in a full-length video. It is aimed at creators rather than casual viewers, with a subscription model starting at a free tier with limited exports.
Vyro (by MrBeast)
Creator-focused clipping with an emphasis on automated viral-moment identification. Vyro is positioned as a production tool for established creators who publish across multiple platforms and need volume and speed in their clipping workflow. Less suited to individual viewers sharing single moments.
Descript
A full video editing platform where YouTube content can be imported and clipped with word-level precision using a transcript editor. More powerful than Clips ever was, but requires significantly more setup and is designed for creators, not casual viewers.
Manual URL timestamp trick
For technically comfortable users who just need a shareable start-point link: you can manually add ?t=NNN to any YouTube URL (where NNN is the time in seconds) to create a link that starts at that moment. This is essentially what Share at Timestamp automates - but knowing the manual method means you can create timestamp links even in contexts where the Share button is not easily accessible.
For saving moments to your own library
Share at Timestamp solves one problem: sending a specific moment to another person. But there is a completely different use case that Clips never handled well either - saving moments for yourself.
Imagine you are watching a long tutorial and the presenter explains a technique at 18:42 that you want to come back to next week. Share at Timestamp lets you send that link to someone else, but it does not save anything to your own library. You could copy the timestamped link into a note somewhere, but that is an extra manual step, and the link lives outside YouTube entirely.
This is the gap that YouTube Bookmark Pro's library fills directly. When you save a video with the extension, you can capture the exact timestamp at the moment you are watching. That timestamp is stored alongside the video in your library. The next time you open a saved video from the panel, the player resumes from exactly where you marked it - no link, no notes app required, no reconstruction of context needed.
Saved Timestamps
Unlike Clips, which were designed for outbound sharing, timestamp bookmarks in YouTube Bookmark Pro are personal and persistent. They survive browser restarts, sync across your devices (on Pro), and stay searchable as your library grows. You can add a note at the same time you save the timestamp - so when you return three weeks later, you remember exactly why that moment mattered to you.
Bottom line
Clips is gone. Here is what actually changed.
For sharing a moment with someone else, Share at Timestamp is genuinely simpler - and it now works on mobile. For saving moments to your own library, a dedicated timestamp bookmarking tool fills the gap Clips never covered anyway.
Related guides
- How to share a YouTube video at a specific timestamp
- How to save a YouTube video at a specific timestamp
- 15 YouTube URL tricks you probably didn't know
- YouTube chapters and timestamps - the complete guide
- YouTube Bookmark Pro Library - save videos with timestamps and notes
- How to save YouTube videos for later
Frequently asked questions
Can I still view old YouTube Clips that were created before April 2026?
Yes. Clips that were created before YouTube removed the feature in April 2026 remain fully viewable. If someone shared a Clip link with you, or if you have links to Clips you created earlier, those links still work and the clip pages are still accessible. Only the creation of new Clips has been removed - existing Clips were not deleted.
Why did YouTube remove the Clips feature?
YouTube gave two main reasons. First, sharing a video link with a timestamp that marks the start point is simpler for most use cases where viewers wanted to share a specific moment. Second, the platform stated that third-party tools exist for users who need more advanced clipping features with defined end points. Underlying the decision appears to be a strategic shift toward giving creators more control over how their content is clipped and shared, rather than allowing any viewer to create viewer-attributed clips from any video.
How do I share a specific moment on YouTube now that Clips is gone?
Use the Share at Timestamp feature. On desktop: click Share below the video, check the "Start at" checkbox, adjust the time if needed, and copy the link. On mobile (as of April 2026): tap Share while watching, find the timestamp toggle in the share popup, enable it, set the time, and share. The resulting link will start playback at that exact second. Unlike Clips, there is no end point - the video plays from your chosen moment through to the end.
What can creators use to create clips with a defined end point?
Creators have two main options within YouTube itself. The Video Clips tool inside YouTube Studio lets creators clip segments from their own uploaded videos and archived live streams with both start and end points - and publish those clips as content on their channel. Later in 2026, YouTube plans to allow creators to convert clips directly into Shorts through this same tool. For third-party options, OpusClip uses AI to automatically identify and export clip-worthy moments with defined start and end points. Descript offers word-level precision clipping through a transcript editor.
How is Share at Timestamp different from the old YouTube Clips feature?
The key difference is the end point. YouTube Clips let you define both where a clip starts and where it ends, creating a self-contained 5-60 second segment that stopped automatically when it finished. Share at Timestamp only defines a starting point - the video plays from that moment through to the end of the full video. For sending someone to a specific part of a long lecture or interview, timestamps work well. For sharing a perfectly bounded 15-second highlight moment, Clips had a meaningful advantage that Share at Timestamp doesn't fully replace.