Skim Slices — Pick Your Pace

skim is the only AI summary tool in the YouTube and long-form video category that lets the viewer choose how deep to go. Tap Short, Medium, or Relaxed above the keypoint list and the analysis swaps instantly — same patent-pending key points underneath, three different depths on demand. Eightify, Glasp, Summarize.tech, NotebookLM, and Wise all give you a single fixed summary output. skim gives you three.

How it works

Open any analyzed video on skim. Above the list of key moments, you will see a three-button control labeled Short, Medium, and Relaxed. The page opens to Short by default — the fastest path to the gist. Click Medium to add supporting context. Click Relaxed to see the comprehensive breakdown. Each slice is computed on demand from the same underlying key-point set; nothing is pre-stored. All three slices prefetch in parallel when the page loads, so the swap is instant — no spinners, no waiting.

Selective playback re-derives time ranges from whichever slice you picked. Hit Play All in Short and you watch only the highest-impact moments. Switch to Relaxed and Play All replays a deeper sequence with more context. All playback runs on YouTube's official IFrame Player — creators get the watch time, ads play, and like/subscribe prompts stay intact regardless of which slice you choose.

The three slices explained

Short keeps the highest-impact moments only. For most videos this lands at roughly 20-30% of the original duration. For long videos (90 minutes and up — typically podcasts), Short shifts to roughly 20% so the absolute skim time stays manageable. A 2-hour podcast at Short is around 24 minutes; a 30-minute video at Short is around 9 minutes. This is the gist — the moments you would not want to miss.

Medium adds supporting context. Roughly 40-50% of the original duration for normal videos, scaled down for long videos. Medium pulls in the key moments from Short and adds adjacent context — the setup, the supporting argument, the follow-up. The gist with the meat.

Relaxed is the comprehensive breakdown. Roughly 70% of the original duration. Relaxed gives you the full key-point coverage — every moment skim flagged as substantive, with all the for-and-against analysis, source attribution, and credibility framing intact. The receipts.

Why three slices (not a slider)

Three labeled depths are easier to remember and easier to share than a slider with infinite knobs. You can tell a friend "watch this on Medium" and they know what you mean. A slider position is meaningless without context. Three slices also map cleanly to real time-investment buckets: a quick check (Short), a focused listen (Medium), or the deep dive (Relaxed). The absolute-time math shifts for long videos so the cognitive contract is the same regardless of whether the source is 8 minutes or 3 hours: pick the depth, get a skim that fits the time you have.

How sharing a key moment works with slices

Every video URL on skim is slice-agnostic — it opens to Short by default and the recipient can toggle. But if you share a deep link to a specific key moment via the share button, and that moment only exists in the Medium or Relaxed slice (because Short pruned it), the page auto-selects the right slice so the linked moment is visible and plays. The share link just works; you do not have to think about the slice mechanics.

Why no other AI summary tool does this

Eightify, Glasp, Summarize.tech, NotebookLM, Wise, Recall, Reflect — every other tool in the AI summary category for YouTube and podcasts ships a single fixed summary output. To match skim's slice control, a competitor would need two things they do not have. First, a per-claim timestamp-grounded data model. Eightify-class transcript-shaped backends store text, not time ranges; depth slices require ranges. That is a multi-quarter rewrite. Second, the willingness to abandon their headline. Their entire pitch is "read this 3-hour podcast in 60 seconds." If they pivot to "watch the substantive parts on YouTube at one of three depths," they have forfeited the brand and the SEO and the user expectation that built their growth.

skim is the only product in the category whose architecture is compatible with this feature.

Patent and technical foundation

skim's slice feature is part of a broader patent-pending claim family covering structured key-point extraction with selective playback on YouTube's IFrame Player API.

Frequently asked questions about skim slices

Can I choose how long my skim is?

Yes. Tap Short, Medium, or Relaxed above the keypoint list on any analyzed YouTube video. Same key points underneath, different depth.

Does the slice choice change the credibility analysis?

No. The credibility, bias, originality, and depth scores are slice-independent — they are computed once for the video and stay constant whether you pick Short, Medium, or Relaxed. The slice choice only affects how many key points you see and which time ranges play.

Can I switch slices mid-watch?

Yes. Click any slice and the keypoint list swaps instantly. Selective playback pauses on the swap so the new slice does not surprise you with unexpected timestamps; hit Play All to start again in the new depth.

Is skim slice control patented?

Patent-pending. The selective-playback claim covers slice-based depth control.

Where does skim slice control work today?

On the skim website (at skim.plus, accessible from any mobile-friendly browser) and inside the skim browser extension for Chrome, Edge, and Brave. The mobile native iOS and Android apps are API-ready; the slice toggle UI on mobile is in development and will land in an upcoming release.

skim is built by Credible AI. Free to use. Patent-pending. The only AI summary that lets you pick how deep to go.