- YouTube Shorts for Premium users is getting Smart Downloads and PiP features.
- Besides, it's also getting a Jump Ahead feature to help users skip to important parts of videos.
- Comment summarization is rolling out as an experimental feature for Premium users.
YouTube Premium users are getting new features in Shorts that many users already use when watching long-form content. The features Smart Downloads and Picture-in-picture are being extended to YouTube Shorts. Besides, the platform is also expanding the availability of the Jump Ahead feature.
For those unaware, the Smart Downloads feature automatically downloads and adds recommended videos to your library to watch offline. On the other hand, picture-in-picture is an existing feature for long-form videos, and it minimizes the current video to a small floating window.
Jump Ahead can be used to jump to the best parts of the video. It’s been in testing for a few months and is finally rolling out. Jump Ahead leverages Google’s machine learning and viewer data to determine the crucial parts. This feature will also reportedly be YouTube Premium-exclusive.
Google is also adding new experimental features to YouTube that can summarize comments and an AI chatbot where users can ask questions about the video. So far, these two features are rolling out to Premium users in the US and will soon be available in other countries.
YouTube has also rolled out a controversial new UI. The major changes are the positioning of the comments section alongside the title and description, which now appear on the left rather than below the video.
With these new features, YouTube wants to push more users onto its Premium subscription. The platform has been cracking down on ad-blockers lately and started testing unskippable Pause ads in a hope to make YouTube Premium more attractive.
We tested PiP in Shorts and it works. But we couldn’t find a way to scroll to another short, which could come in handy. We couldn’t get Smart Downloads to save Shorts, either.
What are your thoughts on YouTube bringing new these features to their Premium subscribers? Are these features convincing enough to opt for their paid service? Let us know in the comments.
