YouTube Premium Rolls Out Experimental Features Including Higher Audio Quality, Faster Playback Speeds

YouTube on Wednesday introduced several new experimental features for its YouTube Premium subscribers. The platform says that the features are aimed at enhancing content consumption, with support for higher quality audio while watching music videos and the ability to toggle faster video playback. Meanwhile, YouTube Shorts for iOS now offers support for picture-in-picture and smart downloads. The company has also rolled out a new plan for subscribers in the US, which makes subscribing to YouTube Premium more affordable, albeit with certain limitations.

YouTube Premium Users Now Get Higher Quality Audio While Watching Music Videos

In a blog post, YouTube detailed the new features rolling out to premium users. It says they can now access audio enhancements while streaming videos, including audio playback in 256kbps. The ‘Jump Ahead' feature, which was previously limited to mobile devices, is being introduced for web browsers too. It enables them to skip to the best parts of the video they're watching.

Users on iOS can also take advantage of picture-in-picture mode on YouTube Shorts, for better multitasking. Meanwhile, the smart downloads feature will automatically select the recommended shorts and download them for offline viewing. The playback options will also be expanded up to 4x speed.

It's worth noting that all the aforementioned features are experimental and users need to opt in before being able to experience them.

The video-streaming service is also expanding select features to more platforms and regions. YouTube Music's Ask Music feature will soon be available to Android users in the UK and Ireland. It allows them to describe the music they wish to listen to, such as “upbeat workout tracks” or “relaxing jazz”, and the feature will generate a personalised radio station with related music, as per YouTube.

Meanwhile, the conversational AI tool, which is essentially a chatbot for discussing currently playing videos and suggesting related content, will also be available on iOS. It is currently limited to YouTube Premium members in the English language in the US.

YouTube says it is rolling out a new offer in the US which lets users save more when signing up for a Google One Premium or higher subscription. With this offer, they will be able to access ad-free YouTube, 2 TB of cloud storage with Google One, and other Google One member benefits at a lower price.