YouTube Reportedly Developing a Sleep Timer Feature That Automatically Stops Video Playback

YouTube may be developing a sleep timer feature for its Android app – a feature which already exists in the YouTube Music app, according to a report. The feature was reportedly found during an APK teardown of a beta version of the YouTube app for Android. This development comes just days after the video-streaming platform announced that it would soon allow users to add notes below videos, providing easy-to-understand context.

Sleep timer on YouTube

In a report, Android Authority, collaborating with tipster AssembleDebug, shared details about the sleep timer feature. As the name suggests, it would reportedly allow users to set a sleep timer, enabling them to set the duration for video playback before it automatically stops. The sleep timer feature was reportedly discovered during an APK teardown of the YouTube app for Android version 19.25.33.

According to discovered references of the feature, users may be able to specify the hours and minutes until video playback stops. It may also show up as a notification. One of the possible dialog options reportedly reads “You can reset the timer or click done to keep watching”.

While YouTube is speculated to get the sleep timer feature with a future update, YouTube Music – the platform's music streaming app – already has it. However, it is unclear if YouTube's sleep timer would work along the same lines. It appears in the Now Playing menu at the bottom. Once turned on, the playback automatically stops after the specified time.

Disrupting ad blockers

According to a report, the video-streaming platform is testing a new method to disrupt ad blockers – injecting server-side ads. At present, the ads are overlayed on top of the video player at specified time stamps, which ad blockers take advantage of. However, with this change, YouTube is speculated to merge ads, making the video a continuous stream instead of two separate elements.