YouTube Premium adds even more perks with support for SharePlay, high-quality video, and more

Image credits: Youtube

YouTube Premium, the ad-free version of YouTube at $11.99 per month, today introduces a number of new features aimed at attracting and retaining subscribers. Most notably, the subscription plan will now include higher quality videos for web and iOS users, support for watching shared FaceTime videos through Apple’s SharePlay and other controls for managing your queue on mobile devices.

The company believes that the broader set of features will help it better market the subscription to consumers, as many don’t know what YouTube Premium provides other than removing ads from YouTube. The launches also follow other recent additions, such as the ability to Continue watching videos where you left off on what device andsmart downloads It automatically saves recommended videos for offline access. This last feature is now available to web users as well, in addition to iOS and Android.

Image credits: YouTube’s “Continue Watching” feature

While many of these previous features have subtly enhanced a YouTube Premium subscription – running in the background where the end user might not even notice – today’s newly announced additions will be even more important to your viewing experience.

For starters, YouTube will start rolling out an improved bitrate version of 1080p HD video quality to Premium subscribers on iOS and then the web in the coming weeks. (On the web, it will first become available as an “experiment.” To be clear, this is not one of the trials at YouTube Premium Offers Subscribers are allowed early access to test new features before the public release.) While all YouTubers will continue to access 1080p, the improved 1080p quality setting will make videos look “sharper and clearer,” YouTube says, including those with lots of detail. and movement, such as sports and games. If implemented successfully, this could help YouTube Premium better live up to its name in terms of providing subscribers with a “premium” experience, not just a less annoying experience by removing ads.

Image credits: Youtube

Another major addition is Apple’s SharePlay support, first introduced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in 2021. Although other video services have long supported SharePlay, including competitors like Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and Tik TokYouTube will limit access so only paying subscribers can use the co-watching feature. That puts the service in a different space from rival TikTok, which was among the first to support Apple’s co-watching feature for FaceTime users.

Of course, SharePlay now feels a bit like a pandemic-era solution designed to connect people who otherwise wouldn’t be together in real life. Netflix, for example, hasn’t even bothered to launch its own official syndicated viewing option, having apparently bet on declining use for something like the lifting of COVID restrictions. So it’s interesting to see YouTube try to market SharePlay as a “feature” rather than standard functionality, especially when the co-viewing solution within Google Meet already allows shared YouTube viewing without upgrading to Premium to all users. (YouTube says only Premium users can get started on Google Meet, but anyone including non-subscribers can watch.)

Another new feature provides more control over your queue when you subscribe to YouTube Premium. Starting today, Premium users will be able to to add videos to their queue When viewing on phones and tablets. While today’s free YouTubers can save videos to playlists, including Watch Later, Queue allows users to control which video they want to play next during their current viewing session.

Image credits: Youtube

Updates join others YouTube Premium features Which, in addition to ad-free viewing, includes background play for watching when the screen is locked, offline downloads and access to YouTube Music Premium.

Correction, 11am ET: High bitrate for the web will be an experiment, YouTube says, but it won’t be listed on the experiments page at YouTube.com/new. We’ve also explained the requirements for YouTube over Google Meet.