The free version of YouTube works quite well (despite the current ad blocker debacle), but if you use it a lot, the premium subscription is actually a pretty good deal. Not only can you skip most ads, download videos for offline playback, and access YouTube Music Premium, you also have the opportunity to try out new features before other YouTubers.
Today, YouTube added five new features for YouTube Premium subscribers — two of which are now widely available, and three more in beta that you can enable if you want. Here are the new features.
Jump forward
After a round of testing, YouTube is moving forward with the Jump Ahead feature. The new feature uses artificial intelligence to analyze the “best” parts of the video, based on where most users go while watching. When you double-click the player window to skip ahead 10 seconds, you will now have the option to “jump forward” to that “better” place.
YouTube says this feature will be released first on the Android operating system, but will be available on the iOS app for premium subscribers soon.
Picture in Picture for YouTube Short Videos
The Picture-in-Picture feature is a convenient way to watch videos on platforms like YouTube while switching to other apps. Now, Premium subscribers on Android will be able to use the picture-in-picture feature for short videos on YouTube similar to TikTok as well. I suppose this feature will be useful for short videos that don’t play on Android. also Short, but I can’t really see a strong use case for keeping 15-30 second videos in picture-in-picture mode while doing things in other apps.
Smart Downloads for Short Videos (Beta)
If you choose to opt in to this beta feature, YouTube will automatically download new short videos to your smartphone so you can watch them with or without an internet connection. The company didn’t specify this, but I expect these short clips will also work in PIP mode.
Conversational AI (beta)
YouTube also announced that it’s bringing its conversational AI back to Android devices. When available, YouTube’s AI will appear below videos via an “Ask” button. You can ask the bot questions and request content similar to the videos you’re watching, even while the video is playing. I doubt this will be a game-changing AI by any means, but it’s an interesting experiment nonetheless.
New View Page UI (Beta)
The only change to the YouTube web app for Premium subscribers is a new beta watch page. YouTube didn’t share much about this, but it did say that the new watch page will make it easier to find new videos and engage with comments.
How to sign up for YouTube beta features
If you want to try out these three new beta features, as well as any other beta features YouTube is currently testing, head over to New YouTube Page And subscribe.
“Web specialist. Lifelong zombie maven. Coffee ninja. Hipster-friendly analyst.”
