YouTube Just Gave Premium Members More Perks,Teases New Plan Options
YouTube has announced that its Premium subscribers are getting more perks, along with a tease about more plan options coming soon that could shake up the value proposition (depending on what the new plans offer and how much they cost).
YouTube Premium members already get an ad-free experience while viewing videos and listening to music. Subscribers can also download videos to watch later while offline, as well as play videos and music in the background while using other apps or while the screen is locked.
There is nothing worse than being interrupted by an ad while watching a video. Therefore, many YouTube users opt to pay for the $13.99 monthly Premium subscription so they can ingest all the content they desire with no worry of being interrupted just as things get good. However, with so many streaming services out there nowadays, some may struggle to find the value in paying to remove ads on YouTube. This is perhaps why the popular streaming service is adding some more perks to lure those who may be on the fence.
So, what are these new perks being offered? Well, one is the ability to skip ahead to what YouTube has deemed “the best parts of a video.” Now, instead of manually trying to search for the highlights, users will now see a ‘jump ahead’ button when they double-tap to skip ahead. YouTube remarked the feature is powered by a combination of AI and viewership data. The ‘jump ahead’ button is available now to US Premium subscribers on Android, with support on iOS coming in the next few weeks.
The next new perk is an uninterrupted experience on YouTube Shorts. Fans of Shorts will be happy to find out they can now take advantage of the new picture-in-picture feature on Android devices. Picture-in-picture shrinks a video into a smaller player so users can keep watching while using other apps on mobile devices. As of right now, the feature will be limited to those on Android devices.
Finally, Premium subscribers will have access to the latest experimental features YouTube offers, such as smart downloads for YouTube Shorts, Conversational AI, and a redesigned watch page. In order to take advantage of the latest experimental features, users will need to head to youtube.com/new and opt-in.
YouTube also mentioned that it is working on improving the download experience by addressing storage related issues, and being committed to bringing members more plan options by expanding its existing offers to more regions, while also introducing new plans in the future.
Do you currently subscribe to YouTube Premium? If not, do these added perks give the incentive to do so? Let us know in the comments.
