If you're looking for some new YouTube stuff to try, the company is testing an easy way to increase video playback speed. Its latest experimental feature starts playing a video at 2x speeds after your long press anywhere on the player.
If you're a premium user, you can try the feature (spotted by 9to5Google) which will be available until August 13. You can enable it by tapping your profile picture in the top-right corner of the YouTube app > Go to Your Premium benefits > Try new features.
Now, tap on the 'Try it now' button under 'Long press to watch at 2x.' Alternatively, you can click on this link to enable it via your web browser. The feature works on Android and iOS devices as well as your web browser where you can click and hold using a mouse or trackpad.
If you don't see the feature in your account yet or don't have a premium subscription, it is still possible to play videos at a higher speed using existing ways. You can tap on the gear icon in the video player and pick your desired playback speed.
This comes days after YouTube allowed premium users to get their hands on a feature designed to prevent accidental taps while watching videos. You can enable it on the YouTube app until August 5, but note that you can only try one experimental feature at a time.
YouTube's feature experiments are tests it runs to gauge the users' reaction to features and get feedback for improvement. However, it might be possible that an experimental feature doesn't go live and reach everyone.
Users also spotted another YouTube feature called Stable Volume gradually rolling out to devices. While the exact use of the feature is yet to be known, it's speculated that Stable Volume is designed to keep volume the same across YouTube videos.
The online video platform recently updated its impersonation policy, asking fan pages to make it obvious that they are not associated with the channel or person they are trying to celebrate. In addition to lowering criteria for its partner program, it was reported that YouTube is internally working on an online gaming product dubbed Playables.
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