YouTube Introduces a Number of New (and Free) Features
Sometimes it pays to be a paid subscriber, like when YouTube releases a series of new features for those who subscribe to Premium, leaving out those of us who use the platform for free. But today we’re all a winner: The company’s latest round of new features and changes is rolling out to all YouTube users, both free and premium, including one feature that was previously only available to paid subscribers. Here’s what’s new:
YouTube finally has a convenient mini-player in the application
If you’ve ever tried to browse the YouTube app while playing a video, you’ve noticed that your video player collapses to the bottom of the page and shrinks down to a tiny thumbnail preview. This is useful for quickly jumping back to the video itself, but the thumbnail is so small that it’s virtually useless if you’re trying to watch a video while scrolling through other content. There might not have been a miniature.
Now the situation is changing. As part of this new feature set, YouTube is introducing a mini player that looks much more like the player you’d expect to see in picture-in-picture (PiP) mode. When you leave a video to continue browsing the YouTube app, a mini player appears, large enough to keep up with what’s happening in the video. You can move this widget around the screen if it is blocking something in the app you want to check. You also don’t have to go back to the video to access basic playback controls: you can play and pause from the mini player itself, and skip ahead and rewind 10 seconds at a time.
Sleep timer available to everyone
Earlier this year, YouTube tested an in-app sleep timer for Premium subscribers. If you paid for YouTube, you had the option to set a timer that would automatically stop playback and put your phone to sleep when the time was up.
At some point, YouTube decided to make this feature available to all users. (A sleep timer may not necessarily be a big enough benefit to get people to shell out $13.99 a month .) No matter how you use YouTube, you now have a sleep timer built-in. ( For more information, check out my full article.)
Collaborative playlists
Following the recommendations of other platforms such as Apple Music , YouTube is now turning playlists into a collaboration tool. The company is introducing shared links for collaborative playlists, and is also working on a feature for YouTube Smart TV apps that will display QR codes that, when scanned, will allow you to jump into collaborating on a playlist.
Plus, you now have the option to add your own thumbnail to a playlist or create one using generative AI. (However, if you don’t want your miniature to look like every other example of generative AI art , maybe stick with something original.)
YouTube has also announced the ability to vote on videos in playlists, so you and your friends can immediately respond to the content of any review.
Badges
As if parasocial relationships weren’t enough already , YouTube is now releasing badges for viewers to “doom” their “bragging rights” when subscribing to certain creators. The company starts with badges such as “being one of the first paid members of a creator’s channel,” “taking quizzes correctly,” as well as being “the best listener” for a particular artist or having the “heart” of the creator. your comment.
If you’re an avid fan of certain YouTubers, I imagine this will be a tempting new feature. But as a passive YouTube viewer, I would prefer not to receive such a badge – intentionally or not.
Fine-tune playback speed
If you’re constantly changing the playback speed of your YouTube videos, you might like this: YouTube introduces a finely tuned slider to adjust playback speed, rather than forcing users to select a set speed from a menu. It’s a small but good change: it allows you to dynamically adjust the speed to suit your needs and preferences.
Improvements to the user interface and landscape mode.
Some more subtle updates include changes to the overall look and feel of the YouTube app. The company has hinted that colors, for example, will be adjusted in the app to better match YouTube’s branding. Meanwhile, landscape mode now has a “cleaner look” with larger thumbnails, which should make it easier to view in that orientation.