YouTube Summaries + Screenshot Answers: A full study workflow with Clarify AI
Why study on YouTube?
We've all been at uni or college where not all the subjects are our favourite ones, yet there are exams to be passed. So you attend lectures and still can't get it: workbooks are way too complex and the lecturer's teaching style doesn't make things easier. Or you're a professional who needs to get to grips with the subject to boost a specific skill asap. This is where YouTube steps in. It's a large pool of talented teachers and niche creators ready to share their knowledge for free. Just choose the one that matches your personality and learning style best.
How to study from YouTube videos?
YouTube videos consist of two components: audio and visual, where audio covers the explanations and commentary of a speaker and visual: their presentation slides with charts, diagrams, screenshots and other info. Hence, you need to work with both these layers to understand the subject properly. This is where both Clarify AI YouTube Summaries and Screen Answers browser extensions will come in handy: YouTube Summaries tool turns the spoken content into structured notes in one click, and Screen Answers, in its turn, lets you work with visual material: screenshot any slide, chart, or code on the screen and ask AI about it. Used together, a 90-minute lecture becomes 25-30 minutes of focused work with better notes at the end.
Why do you need both tools?
The summary itself is based on the video transcript and doesn't cover the info shown on the screen. That's not a flaw, but a structural limit of working from audio. The fix is a second extension that analyses the screen. So the combination of these two tools is like a great partnership: each one does its own job and the result is maximised in the collaboration. Add YouTube Summaries and Screen Answers - one sign-in works for both.
Tips for effective learning
1. Summarize before watching
Open the video on YouTube and press the 'summarize' button on the right. In one click you get a structured summary of the whole video, the AI is built in, no jumping to a new page. Now you can scan the content and decide whether the full video deserves your attention, and get a list of all the covered topics with timestamps.
With the summary as your checklist, skip what you already know and jump to the sections that matter.
2. Screenshot the slides and analyse them
1. Pause the video.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+S (Cmd+Shift+S on Mac) and drag to select the region.
3. Pick a quick action in the panel in the bottom right corner or type your own question.
What to ask depends on what's on screen: you can extract the text from a blurry slide, ask AI assistant to break down a formula into steps or ask for the explanation of the specific statement.
3. Ask follow-up questions
Screen Answers Extension keeps a chat about each capture, so you can push further: "How does this relate to what was covered earlier?", "Give me a simpler example", and so on. The answer refers to the exact slide but keeps all the previous context in 'mind'.
4. Compile the notes
By the end of the video you'll have the summary, extracted content from the slides and their explanations, plus answers to your own follow-up questions. Merging them takes minutes because everything is already text. Voila, now you have one document to revise the subject from instead of re-watching hours of video.
Gifts to make the workflow even more enjoyable
Install YouTube Summariser and Screen Answers, sign in with one account, and tell us what to improve.
We're actively shaping both products around user feedback. Pro users of the Summariser get free Pro access to Screen Answers until October - no promo code needed, same account. New users can take 70% off the monthly plan with code ANSWERS70.
Hope you'll find the tools useful and welcome to Clarify community! 🩵 💜 💛
