Google is rolling out a bunch of new features and improvements for its YouTube apps and services across all of its supported platforms. They include a new feature that will likely be welcomed by many users: a sleep timer.
In its YouTube blog post, Google stated that the new sleep timer feature, which was included for people who paid for a YouTube Premium subscription earlier this year, is now available for all YouTube mobile users.
Now, if you take your smartphone or tablet to bed and watch some clips at night, you can set up the app so that it shuts down automatically if you drift off into sleep. There are preset time limits ranging from 10 minutes to an hour, or you can set the app to go off after the end of a video.
YouTube is also improving the mini-player function for its mobile apps. Now, you can move the mini-player in the YouTube app so you can browse the other video selections while still watching your video. You can also resize the mini-player.
YouTube playlists are getting some changes as well. Users can send a link to others in the mobile app to help with the creation of playlists. YouTube TV app users will soon be able to add to their playlists as well with a QR code. Sometime later in 2024, users will also be able to vote for videos in playlists. Google added:
We’re also introducing new customization tools to give playlists a personal touch. Users can design their own custom thumbnails for playlists using their own photos or create new ones with generative AI.
Also, later this year, both the YouTube and YouTube Music mobile apps will support adding special badges to celebrate certain milestones for users, such as being a top listener for a creator"s music.
Some of the other smaller updates for YouTube apps being rolled out include ways to change the playback speed of videos down to 0.05 increments and some visual improvements to the app that Google says help to simplify the experience.