YouTube Premium introduced five new features for users. Paid subscribers will be able to watch 1080p videos in the best quality, queue up videos on their phone or tablet, watch videos together on Android and iOS, resume interrupted viewing on any device, and watch recommended videos offline.
1080p video with high bitrate
YouTube Premium subscribers will be able to watch a more “dense” stream. Encoding with a higher bitrate will reduce blurring in moving scenes, the number of artifacts and increase the clarity of the image. The feature is only available for videos originally uploaded in 1080p resolution – no other resolutions, shorts or live streams are supported. It will also be possible to choose the usual HD quality to reduce traffic. While the feature only works on iOS, it will be expanded to view on the web and on other devices.
Continue viewing on different devices
Quite often, watching YouTube is interrupted by various events. Premium users will be able to view the video on any of their devices. The ability is distributed and works between Android, iOS gadgets and browsing in a browser. It will be possible to continue viewing regardless of the manufacturer and type of device (I would like to know about the support of different types of Smart TV, but Google does not clarify this).
Add to queue on smartphones and tablets
The browsing queue, previously available in the browser, will be extended to portable devices. “Queue puts control back in your hands, letting you decide exactly which video you want to play next.” To add a video to a queue on Android and iOS, you need to:
- Click the icon next to the name of the desired video More (Three points)
- Choose an option Play next in line or Play last in queue
Shared browsing on Android and iOS
You can watch videos together using Meet Live Sharing. On Android devices, Premium members can host Google Meet sessions where all members, whether Premium or Free, can watch YouTube videos together. In the coming weeks, this feature will be available to FaceTime users on iOS via SharePlay. You can find out how to watch the video from the instructions or the video:
Course
Game design for beginners
You will be taught by the person who integrated Chuck Norris into the feature for the World of Tanks project
Cool
Offline viewing and smart downloading
Thanks to the Smart Downloads feature, YouTube Premium users will be able to automatically add recommended videos to their library for later offline viewing. The video will download when the device is connected to Wi-Fi. The download will stop if the device is disconnected from Wi-Fi or runs out of memory. The function requires a suitable free space in the memory, just in case, here are the instructions on how to disable it:
- Go to The library
- Click the download icon (down arrow)
- Select from the menu Settings
- Move the slider Smart downloads to the “disable” position
The settings also limit the amount of memory that downloaded videos can occupy.
Last year, YouTube reported attracting 30 million Premium and Music subscribers, a significant jump from the 50 million Premium users YouTube announced in 2021. In Ukraine, YouTube Premium costs only ₴99 per month (~$2.6) – much cheaper than in other countries. In addition, there is a family tariff for ₴149. The main advantage of paid use is the absence of advertising (except, of course, for inserts inserted by the creator of the video).
YouTube will still leave 4K among the basic options – the experiment of limiting high-quality video with a Premium subscription is over
Source: YouTube Official Blog
