Creating a playlist with the YouTube app is a great way to gather together videos on a specific topic or artist.
There are many reasons for creating a playlist. It’s a good way to bring some of your favorite videos together, so you never have to worry about finding them. You could create a collection of videos for a friend or loved one and share them, or you could cobble together a collection of videos to be played for a specific event.
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There are also several ways to create a playlist. The easiest is to find a previously collected playlist that you enjoy and then save it. This action will add the playlist to your account, so it’s always accessible — unless it’s removed by either the original playlist creator or the videos are removed from YouTube.
If you want to create a personal playlist, the process isn’t quite as simple, but I’m going to show you how it’s done.
How to create your own YouTube playlist
What you’ll need: The only things you’ll need for this trick are the YouTube app installed on your mobile device of choice and you’ll need to have signed in with your Google account.
You must sign in, otherwise you cannot save playlists to your account, such that they can be viewed from your phone, desktop, laptop, or any device that is logged in to the same account. Of course, you’ll also want to make sure you have videos to add to your playlist.
The first thing to do is open the YouTube app on your device. If you find out you’re not signed in to your Google account, make sure to do so.
Tap your profile icon in the bottom right corner of the app. On the resulting page, you should see listings for History, Playlists, Your videos, and more. To the right of Playlists, tap the View all button.
You can view your history or your playlists from here. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
On this page, you should see a Create new playlist button. Tap it.
Yes, I do happen to watch a lot of instructional videos for singing. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
On the resulting page, you’ll find a list of your recently viewed videos. You can select any video from that list by tapping its associated checkbox. Once you’ve selected all the videos you want for your playlist, tap Next in the top right corner.
Chess is one of my all-time favorite musicals. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
A popup will appear, where you can give the new playlist a name and select its privacy option (Public, Unlisted, Private). Once you’ve taken care of that requirement, tap Create and your new playlist will be available in your Playlist page.
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One thing to keep in mind is that if you save the playlist as Private, you can’t share it. If you believe you might want to share the playlist (but don’t want it to be public), save it as an Unlisted playlist.
Make sure to select the correct privacy for your playlist, so you can share it (if applicable). Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
You can now open your new playlist and watch the videos anytime you like and — if you save it as either Public or Unlisted — share it to anyone you believe will enjoy the content.
That’s it. You’ve created your first playlist using the YouTube app.
