YouTube Premium users get two new experimental features – Auto-speed and On-the-go.
Appearing in the YouTube app for Android, Google has started rolling out two features locked behind a Premium subscription. Both are classified as experimental and are not enabled by default.
The first feature, “auto speed” appears to be an improved version of 2x speed. The video moves by itself, adjusting the speed as it progresses. The card art shows an example of a cooking video, which is the main use case for this type of feature.
YouTube says auto-speed is currently only available in English and only appears for supported videos. If not supported, the “Auto” button in the video speed controls will not appear. Otherwise, the feature can be found in the same place as 2x and other speeds last update.
On-the-go is another interesting. It takes cues from YouTube Music’s UI and brings it to videos, but under certain conditions. The experience description says it can be activated automatically or manually. If set to automatic, videos will transition to a more YouTube Music-like user interface after detecting motion for at least 60 seconds. A prompt may appear to ask if you want to switch.
Users can also do this by tapping the “On the Go” option in the video settings.
It doesn’t want to work in its current form, so it’s unclear how it compares to YouTube’s Premium control page. From Google’s artwork, it looks like the video graphic is more accessible as the play button. The options below will also change, the download button will be more prominent.
Both auto speed and on-the-go features are currently limited to Android devices. Auto speed is the only speed we can work with, although some errors are to be expected. Here they are again experimental features may or may not be rolled out to users as full-fledged tools in the future. For now, Premium users can try them out until YouTube takes them down on April 27.
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