YouTube is rolling out new features for its Premium subscribers, including “Jump Ahead” and “Shorts Picture-in-Picture,” designed to enhance the viewing experience. Adding features to benefit both the content creator and their target audience.
Jump ahead
Jump Ahead is a feature that helps users skip directly to the most-watched parts of a video. By double-tapping, a “Jump Ahead” button appears in the bottom-right corner of the player. You can skip through videos at ease, because the fun doesn’t stop there.
When tapped, the feature utilises AI and viewership data to bypass commonly skipped sections. Currently, Jump Ahead is available for US YouTube Premium subscribers on Android, with iOS support coming soon. AI can predict where you want to be.
Shorts picture-in-picture
YouTube Shorts now supports Picture-in-Picture mode on Android. This allows users to watch Shorts while multitasking in other apps or checking messages. The window can be resized from very small to fairly large. Allowing all users to have fun with the new feature.
You’ll find play/pause and next/previous Short controls available for convenience. This makes the process of heading from one Short to another smoother than ever. No longer do you need to swipe back and forth. Instead, you’ll have buttons to do it for you.
New experiments
YouTube is also testing three experimental features:
- Smart downloads for Shorts: This feature automatically downloads a selection of entertaining Shorts to your phone, ensuring they are available for offline viewing.
- Ask experiment: Returning to YouTube.com/new, this experiment lets users ask questions about a video and receive suggestions.
- Redesigned watch page: YouTube is building a new Watch Page on the web aimed at improving the viewing experience, making it easier to find related content and engage with comments.
Feedback and future developments
YouTube encourages Premium subscribers to provide feedback on these new features and suggest future improvements. This can be done via their feedback tool at yt.be/help/feedback. Providing feedback is important if you want to see change on the platform.
These new additions join existing YouTube Premium benefits, including ad-free viewing, offline downloads, background play, 1080p Premium quality, Google Meet Live Sharing, SharePlay on iOS, queuing, “Continue watching” prompts, and occasional perks.
