YouTube Premium already offers a number of features for its $11.99 a month fee that standard free YouTube users don"t have. These include no video or banner ads, playing videos in the background while using other apps, downloads for offline viewing, and full access to YouTube Music. Today, YouTube owner Google announced a number of new features that are either available now or coming soon to YouTube Premium subscribers.
In a blog post, Google stated that iOS users in the coming weeks will get an enhanced bitrate 1080p option for playing videos. Google stated:
While all users will still have access to 1080p, this enhanced 1080p quality setting will look extra crisp and clear, especially for videos with lots of detail and motion.
This feature will be added for web YouTube Premium users as an "experiment" in the near future as well.
Google also will add ways for people to share watching YouTube videos with others. Android users with a Premium subscription can use Meet Live Sharing via Google Meet sessions. People in a session can watch the same YouTube video together, even if some of them don"t have a Premium subscription. iOS device owners will get the same feature, via Face Time, in the coming weeks.
Premium subscribers on phones and tablets can now queue up YouTube videos so they can keep watching a series of clips without having to select one each time. Those users can also set up Smart Downloads, which will add and download recommended videos automatically, via a Wi-Fi connection, to your mobile device for offline viewing later. Finally, web, iOS, and Android users can watch a video on one device, stop in the middle, and then pick up where they left off on another device.