YouTube Premium Introduces 4x Playback Speed Feature for Subscribers
YouTube Premium has introduced an exciting new feature that allows subscribers to watch videos at a staggering four times the normal speed. This enhancement aims to streamline the viewing experience, enabling users to quickly skim through content, bypass lengthy introductions, skip sponsored segments, or rapidly review material they wish to revisit.
Availability and Activation
This feature is currently available on both Android and iOS devices and will remain so until February 26. To access the 4x playback speed, users need to navigate to the YouTube experiments page and log in with their Premium account. Here’s how you can opt in:
- Visit the YouTube experiments page.
- Sign in with your Premium account credentials.
- Scroll down to the “Faster Speeds” experiment section.
- Click on “Try it out.”
If you see an option to disable this feature, it means the faster playback speed has been successfully activated. Do keep in mind that it may take up to an hour for this feature to appear in the YouTube app after opting in.
Additional Feature Rollouts
On January 22, YouTube unveiled several new features through its experiments page, including:
- “Jump Ahead” for web users
- High-quality 256kbps audio for both iOS and Android
- iOS-specific features such as “Shorts Picture-in-Picture” and “Shorts Smart Downloads”
While most of these features were promptly added for users, the faster playback speed option is finally making its debut after much anticipation.
YouTube’s Experimental Program
This new feature is part of YouTube’s early access experimental program, designed exclusively for Premium subscribers. This initiative allows paying users to test upcoming features before they are rolled out to everyone. Moreover, it provides YouTube with valuable feedback that can help refine or even discard certain features based on user experiences and preferences.
With these advancements, YouTube continues to enhance its platform, making it more user-friendly and adaptable to the needs of its subscribers.
