There are times when you doze off without warning while watching a YouTube video on your bed or while playing sleep meditation music. YouTube is working on a feature that will prevent your device from continuing the video playback for hours and auto-playing other videos after you doze off.
The video-sharing platform is testing Sleep Time for desktop and mobile devices. The feature lets you "set a timer to automatically pause playback after a certain amount of time." If you"re a Premium user, you can go to the YouTube Experiments webpage to sign up for the feature and try it out.
YouTube says on the experiments page that the Sleep Timer feature will be available until September 2. After signing up, play a video on your desktop > tap on the gear icon in the player > Sleep Timer. On mobile, you will have to take one extra step by clicking on the "Additional Settings" button.
You can choose different time limits, such as 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or 60 minutes, or set the playback to stop when the video ends. YouTube hasn"t said anything about when the feature will reach a wider audience and whether it will be available to free users as well in the future.
The company has similarly tested several features in the past. Its Stable Volume feature was spotted by eagle-eyed users last year before making its way to everyone. Similarly, YouTube tested the Jump Ahead feature, which started rolling out earlier this year.
Apart from that, the Google-owned company is working on a load of other features, including a redesigned desktop player, community-powered notes, and QR codes for YouTube channels. YouTube is also trying to find a way to make it nearly impossible to block ads on the platform.