YouTube Announces New Premium Features and Hints At More Plans Options

Google detailed yesterday a couple of new features that are now rolling out to YouTube Premium subscribers, as well as a couple of experimental features that Premium members can get early access to. The company also teased new Premium plan options that may soon complement the existing Individual, Student, and Family plans.

In the US, YouTube Premium users on Android devices now have access to a Jump Ahead feature that intelligently skips ahead to the best parts of a video. The ‘Jump Ahead’ button will appear when double-tapping on the screen to skip ahead, and this feature leverages AI and viewership data to get to the content users are most likely to care about. Jump Ahead is coming to iOS users in the next few weeks, the YouTube team said.

The second new feature that’s now available for YouTube Premium users on Android is the ability to watch YouTube Shorts videos in picture-in-picture mode. The YouTube mobile app already supports watching regular YouTube videos in picture-in-picture mode, so this is all about making the watching experience more consistent on mobile.

Next, there are three experimental features that YouTube Premium users can check out on youtube.com/new. However, only one of these experiments can be active at a time:

Shorts Smart Downloads: This feature will automatically download recommended YouTube Shorts videos for offline viewing. However, it’s only available on Android devices at the moment.

Redesigned Watch Page: The YouTube team created a new watch page layout on the desktop that should improve the viewing experience and provide easier access to related content and comments.

Conversational AI tool: This experimental generative AI feature is making a comeback for YouTube Premium users in the US on Android devices. By tapping the “Ask” button underneath select videos, users can access a conversational AI that can answer questions about the video they’re watching.

In a separate update to a support page spotted by Android Police, the YouTube team said that it’s also testing @mentions in comments on mobile with a small group of users. As of today, only a small group of content creators can mention other channels in the comments.

Last but not least, the YouTube team announced in another community post that more plan options could be on the way (via The Verge). “We’re committed to bringing members more plan options by expanding our existing offers to more regions, while also introducing new plans and exploring ways for you to share your benefits with friends in the future,” the team said.

It’s not exactly clear how the ability to share YouTube Premium benefits with other users could work in practice. However, Netflix now lets subscribers to its Standard and Premium plans pay to add up to two extra members that aren’t in their household, so maybe YouTube will take inspiration from that.