Love watching YouTube without interruptions? A YouTube Premium subscription might be the perfect upgrade for you! While the free version of YouTube is great, Premium offers a bunch of benefits that enhance your viewing experience. Not only does it remove most ads, but it also lets you download videos to watch offline and grants access to YouTube Music Premium, a separate music streaming service. But wait, there’s more! Subscribers also get early access to brand new features before anyone else.
Exciting New Features for YouTube Premium Users
Today, YouTube is treating Premium subscribers to a bunch of new features! There are two features available to everyone with Premium right now, and three more that are still under development but can be enabled by those who are interested in trying them out. Let’s dive into the details:
YouTube Jump Ahead
Get ready for a smarter way to navigate YouTube videos! YouTube is officially launching “Jump Ahead,” a new feature powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that helps you skip to the most interesting parts of a video.
How Does Jump Ahead Work?
Here’s the magic behind Jump Ahead:
- AI Analyzes User Behavior: YouTube’s AI analyzes how people typically watch videos. It considers where viewers tend to scrub ahead to the most – these are likely the most engaging or informative parts.
- Smarter Skipping: When you double-tap the video player to skip ahead 10 seconds (the usual functionality), you’ll now see a “Jump Ahead” button alongside the regular progress bar.
- Jump to the “Good Stuff”: Tapping the “Jump Ahead” button will take you directly to a section of the video identified by AI as a highlight, potentially saving you time and getting you to the content you’re most interested in.
Availability:
The Jump Ahead feature is currently rolling out first to the YouTube app for Android users. For iPhone and iPad users (iOS), Jump Ahead will be available soon, but for now it’s exclusive to YouTube Premium subscribers.
A More Streamlined Viewing Experience
Jump Ahead represents YouTube’s ongoing efforts to improve the viewing experience. By leveraging AI, the platform aims to personalize your video exploration and help you discover the most captivating parts of content.
YouTube Shorts Picture-in-Pictures
Multitasking just got a little more interesting for YouTube Premium subscribers on Android devices! YouTube recently announced that they’re rolling out picture-in-picture (PIP) functionality for YouTube Shorts. This means you can now minimize a Short and keep it playing in a small window while you use other apps on your phone.
What is Picture-in-Picture?
PIP is a feature that allows you to shrink a video window and keep it playing on top of other apps you’re using. This is great for situations where you want to keep an eye on a video while also checking emails, browsing the web, or doing other things on your phone.
PIP for YouTube Shorts: A Questionable Use Case?
While PIP for regular YouTube videos can be a valuable tool, its usefulness for YouTube Shorts is a bit debatable. Shorts are typically very short videos, ranging from 15 to 30 seconds. It’s fair to wonder who would find it beneficial to keep such a brief video playing in PIP mode while multitasking on other apps.
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Here’s a breakdown of the situation:
Limited Benefit for Short Content: Since Shorts are already short and designed for quick consumption, there’s not much need to minimize them and keep them playing in PIP. You could likely watch the entire Short uninterrupted in most cases.
Potential Niche Uses: However, there might be some niche situations where PIP for Shorts could be helpful. For instance, maybe you’re following a cooking tutorial Short and need to quickly check a recipe ingredient in another app. PIP could allow you to keep an eye on the video demonstration while referencing the recipe.
YouTube Smart Download (Under Development)
YouTube is currently experimenting with an opt-in feature that allows users to automatically download new Shorts videos directly to their smartphones. This means you can watch your favorite Shorts even when you don’t have an internet connection – perfect for commutes, airplane rides, or anywhere with spotty Wi-Fi.
YouTube AI Conversation
Remember those AI-powered conversations you could have about YouTube videos on your Android device? Well, they’re back! YouTube is re-introducing its conversational AI feature, offering a unique way to interact with video content.
Chatting with YouTube’s AI (Under Development)
Here’s how it works:
- The “Ask” Button: Look for a new button labeled “Ask” appearing underneath the video you’re watching on the YouTube app for Android. This button signifies the presence of the AI assistant.
- Ask Questions, Get Answers: Tap the “Ask” button and fire away! You can ask the AI questions related to the video you’re watching, potentially seeking clarification or interesting facts.
- Find Similar Content: Feeling hooked on a particular video style? You can also ask the AI to recommend similar content, helping you discover new videos you might enjoy.
- Multitasking Made Possible: The beauty of this feature is that you can interact with the AI even while the video is playing. No need to pause or rewind – ask your questions and get answers on the fly.
New YouTube Watch Page (Under Development)
YouTube is testing a new feature for people who pay for YouTube Premium on the web. This new feature is for the watch page, the place where you see the video you’re watching and other related content.
YouTube hasn’t revealed many details, but they say this new watch page will make it simpler to find interesting new videos to watch. It will also make it easier to chat with other viewers in the comments section.
We don’t know exactly when this new watch page will be available to everyone, but hopefully we’ll learn more about it soon!
How to Sign Up for YouTube Experimental Features
Want to test out the latest features YouTube is working on? Here’s how!
Head over to YouTube’s “New” webpage and sign up to be a tester. This will give you access to the three new features mentioned in this article, plus any other cool features YouTube might be experimenting with right now. It’s a great way to see what YouTube is working on and be among the first to try it out!