What is this blue bar that appears in some videos in iOS 18?
Every video stored in your iPhone’s photo library has a progress bar or playback bar that lets you know where you are in the clip, as well as move forward or backward in the content. However, in some cases, especially iOS 18, it’s possible to see a blue bar in videos. If you’ve seen this, you’ve probably wondered why it’s there and what it really means.
Contrary to what many users might think, the blue area, as it appears in the playback bar, does not indicate the part where you were last watching the video, which is exactly what happens on YouTube. Nor does it indicate the most played parts of the clip. This, in fact, has a more interesting purpose.
Specifically, the blue lines that appear in the iOS 18 launch bar are the parts that match a search you’ve previously performed in your iPhone’s photo library. That means if you search for “red car,” for example, the Photos app will show you all the results that show a red vehicle — including videos. The blue lines are the parts that show the red car. That way, all you have to do is tap on them to quickly get to the result, not see the entire content.
This blue line, which we repeat, appears when searching for something in the app, appears in both iOS 18 and iOS 17 and is activated by default. Apple also does not offer any option to deactivate it, although this is not necessary since it is a function that greatly improves the user experience when searching for something specific in a video.