YouTube is rolling out its paid 1080p Premium option more widely
YouTube is the go-to website for community-created longer format video content, and Google seems aware of the responsibility it shoulders running one of the best entertainment apps out there. To keep things ship-shape, feature updates are commonplace and since the beginning of this year, we have seen YouTube dabbling with a new 1080p quality enhanced bitrate option. After initial testing, it is now rolling out to a much wider audience.
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We first spotted YouTube testing a playback quality setting for 1080p high-bitrate in February. Designed only for YouTube Premium subscribers, the option was initially limited to iPhone and Apple TV users. Retaining its Apple exclusivity, the high-bitrate option rolled out in April. At the time, Google made it clear the option would eventually arrive on Android and the web. Now, a few users have spotted the feature during testing in the wild (via 9to5Google).
One Twitter user saw the 1080p Premium bitrate option show up on the Android app, while another took to Reddit to share the same finding on the app for Android TV. This suggests Google is expanding testing on Android platforms ahead of the feature’s official rollout. You may even see it on the YouTube website in some cases.
Notably, this new option for 1080p Premium streaming doesn’t mean the old 1080p quality available for free-tier users is worse now. YouTube has merely introduced a new option for Premium subscribers without affecting any of the free tier quality settings. Even if you aren’t a subscriber, you may see the option on the web, but attempts to enable it will redirect you to the YouTube Premium subscriptions page.
Besides this inclusion for the main YouTube platform, Google has been making changes to the music streaming side of things with YouTube Music. On the web, YouTube Music has a whole new UI taking nostalgic cues from Google Play Music.
Source: Android Police
