These new experiments and features promise to offer Premium users more options to enhance their watch experience. Besides rolling out new experimental features, YouTube also announced a Google One partnership and expanded the availability of one feature.
If you’re a Premium user, you can opt into multiple experimental features at once such as new audio enhancements, PiP for Shorts, Smart Downloads and more. Here is the full list of experimental features that are now available to YouTube Premium users:
- High-quality audio: Premium members will experience new audio enhancements, enjoying high-quality 256kbps audio on music videos with more clarity and depth.
- Picture-in-Picture for YouTube Shorts on iOS: Watch your favorite Shorts while browsing other apps or checking messages.
- Smart Downloads for YouTube Shorts on iOS: You will have recommended Shorts selected and automatically downloaded for offline viewing.
- “Jump ahead” on web: Previously available on mobile devices, you can now seamlessly skip ahead to the best parts of a video while browsing on web browsers.
- Faster playback speeds on mobile: Soon, you will be able to fine-tune your viewing experience with expanded playback speed options up to 4x on mobile devices.
Unfortunately, the savings are quite low. For example, if you decide to pay for the lowest Google One Premium plan ($9.99 per month for 2 TB), you’ll save $2 per month on YouTube Premium.
Last but not least, YouTube is expanding the Ask Music feature to Android subscribers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. With Ask Music, YouTube users can describe the kind of music they want to listen to, and thanks to the new feature the app will be able to generate a personalized radio station populated with their favorite music.
Also, YouTube’s conversational AI tool will expand to iOS. The assistive tool answers questions about the video you’re watching, suggests related content, and more, without interrupting the playback experience.
