YouTube has raised its Premium subscription prices in select regions recently. The service offers subscribers an ad-free experience, the option to watch videos or listen to music in the background, and enhanced video quality. Currently, YouTube boasts about 80 million users who are either paying for or trialing the Premium service worldwide. In addition to the price hike, the company has introduced several new features aimed at enhancing the Premium user experience.
In a recent blog announcement, YouTube revealed that Premium subscribers can now stream 1080p videos at an improved bitrate on more devices. Originally launched exclusively for iOS users, this feature is now accessible to Android users as well. Subscribers can also enjoy enhanced video quality on smart TVs and Android tablets. The upgraded 1080p High Bitrate option can be activated via the Quality setting.
The higher bitrate offers a superior viewing experience, allowing for clearer images and greater detail by providing more data per pixel. Google clarifies that only videos uploaded in 1080p are eligible for the enhanced bitrate feature; content with higher or lower resolutions, live streams, and YouTube Shorts are excluded from this upgrade.
In addition, YouTube has rolled out a new feature called Conversation AI, designed to enhance user engagement by recommending related videos or content based on user queries. According to the company, this AI chatbot can also respond to questions about the current video. Currently, this functionality is only available to Android users in the United States and can be accessed by selecting the Ask button.
The AI tool also allows users to request summaries of lengthy comments, condensing them into brief paragraphs that highlight key themes. YouTube encourages creators to leverage this feature for inspiration in their future projects.
Additionally, Premium users now have the convenience of resuming a video on a different device from where they left off, provided they are logged into the same account. For example, a user can pause a video on their phone and later continue watching it on a television. YouTube will label these videos under Continue Watching. Previously, this functionality was limited to transitions between mobile phones and web browsers, but it is now available across all platforms.
Long-term Premium subscribers can also collect virtual badges as recognition of their loyalty. Users aged 18 and older can earn these badges by engaging with various Premium benefits such as Afterparty, YouTube Music, and Continue Watching. By clicking on locked badges in the Your Premium benefits section of their YouTube account, users can find guidelines on how to earn them.
