YouTube Premium subscribers now have access to new experimental features, including the ability to watch videos at 4x speed, as reported by Android Police. This ultra-fast playback option joins several other test features, giving paying users an early look at YouTube’s latest innovations.
The 4x playback speed is available on iOS and Android until February 26. While many users already watch content at 1.5x or 2x speeds, this extreme setting is more suited for quickly skimming through videos rather than absorbing information at a faster rate.
Other experimental features currently available include:
- Shorts Smart Downloads (iOS only, until February 19) – Automatically downloads Shorts videos for offline viewing.
- Shorts Picture-in-Picture (iOS only, until February 19) – Allows users to watch Shorts in a floating mini-player while multitasking.
- High-Quality Audio (256kbps) (iOS and Android, until February 22) – Enhances audio clarity for a richer listening experience.
- Jump Ahead (Web only, until February 5) – Introduces a button that lets users automatically skip to the most relevant parts of a video.
The Jump Ahead feature is particularly useful for quickly bypassing intros and unnecessary filler, letting viewers get straight to the content they care about. Combined with faster playback speeds, these updates seem designed to maximize efficiency for Premium users who already enjoy an ad-free experience.
While higher quality audio is a welcome improvement, the Shorts Smart Downloads feature may be less appealing, as it automatically stores large amounts of Shorts content on users’ devices. Still, these experiments give Premium members an exciting glimpse into YouTube’s evolving playback experience.
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