Hajra Naz
YouTube Premium users are getting early access to new experimental features designed to enhance their viewing experience. These include curated recommended videos in playback queues, more precise playback speed controls, and exclusive rewards for providing feedback.
YouTube Premium’s New Features
YouTube Premium is a subscription service that guarantees the elimination of pesky, annoying advertisements while viewing the contents of its social video platform, as well as background use, offline copying and storage of videos, and uninterrupted commercial viewing. The company has started rolling out experimental features that allow new functionality to be tested by a limited people before becoming widely available.
Curated Video Queues for Android Users
One of the new features being tested is ‘Recommended Videos’, which allows users to add videos other viewers find appealing to their YouTube account for later viewing while the user is in the Now Playing queue on Android Devices. This addition lets users remain glued to the current screen while videos are suggested and allows them to add those videos to their queue.
This experiment is targeted to end on the 7th of April. The aim is to come up with a user experience of content discovery and organization that is more user-friendly than before. Unlike auto-play recommendations, these videos must be manually added to the queue, so their consumption is not that simple and requires a little more user activity, and thus can be considered less user-friendly intuitively.
Enhanced Playback Speed Controls on Mobile
Users with grotesque mobile devices can now increase and decrease the speed of viewing all types of content, including videos, to an extent that is greater than ever before, with the cap now being set at 4 changes per second on mobile. Also, it was this feature that was available up until the 7th of April, the other one of control video, which adds to the speed of viewing the content faster, especially for those who want most of the content in less time.
Feedback Participant Rewards Program
YouTube is now offering incentives to users who register for testing and provide feedback. Qualifying users may later get a follow-up survey that matches their profile and outlines the study’s requirements and procedures. Gift Cards are given as appreciation for completing the survey.
“YouTube appreciates the user’s voice, which is why it is being compensated for feedback,” was the company’s statement on its site.
Does the New Queue Feature Revolutionize the Platform?
Although YouTube already personalizes the homepage and search bar, adding a recommended videos segment to a user’s playback queue could improve how users discover videos. Some users may consider the feature unnecessary should the recommended videos have no relation to their current viewing choices.
Draw parallels to Spotify’s ‘Recommended Songs’ feature, which suggests music based on the theme of a playlist. If YouTube refines its recommendation system to user watch history, then the new queue feature will greatly increase the user experience rather than being an unwanted addition.
Final Thoughts
YouTube’s ongoing experiments reflect its commitment to improving the Premium experience. While curated queues and enhanced playback controls could enhance usability, their effectiveness largely depends on how well they cater to individual user preferences.
For now, YouTube Premium users have until April 7 to test these features and provide feedback, shaping the future of the platform’s viewing experience.
