Yes, you heard it right. YouTube has a plan called YouTube Premium, and if you’d ask us, it is one of the best purchases we’ve made. In this article, we want to show you some of the best YouTube Premium features in 2023 to help you make the purchase decision. The premium version of YouTube offers so much more than just getting rid of the ads. Let’s show you the thirteen best YouTube Premium features.
1. Ad-Free YouTube Videos
Watching YouTube without ads is the number one reason to consider buying YouTube Premium. As free users, you’d get away with skipping ads but in the present day, you seldom see an ad you can skip. There are long ads and sometimes a combination of ads you need to brave through before watching the video. Purchase YouTube Premium so as not to be at the mercy of advertisers!
2. Download and Watch Videos Offline
If you have to spend a few hours without internet, say while traveling on a flight where an internet connection isn’t available, you’d certainly wish for a few YouTube videos to keep you company. Once you purchase YouTube Premium, you can download videos for offline viewing whenever you want to.
3. Smart Downloads for YouTube Videos
In addition to downloading videos, YouTube Premium has a feature called Smart Downloads. YouTube recognizes your viewing pattern and decides a reasonable probability of what you may watch next. YouTube, then, automatically downloads these videos so that you never forget to download videos yourself. However, this may cause concerns regarding internet data consumption. Hence, you can also disable Smart Downloads on YouTube.
4. 1080p Premium With Enhanced Bitrate (iPhone)
YouTube recently announced a feature called 1080p Premium for Premium members. This feature enhances the quality of the already existing 1080p resolution. YouTube provides an increased bitrate for such videos, which is a key component that the video quality depends upon. While we used the 1080p Premium feature, we noticed an increase in the quality. We explored the 1080p Premium feature on YouTube in detail a few days ago, and you can read it to know more.
5. Play YouTube Videos in the Background (iPhone and Android)
You’re lost listening to your favorite song on YouTube and you unconsciously lock your phone – only for the song to stop playing and the moment is just ruined. We’ve been here too many times, haven’t we Thankfully, you can put an end to this and purchase YouTube Premium. As a premium member, you can play YouTube videos in the background even after exiting the app.
6. Enjoy YouTube Music With Premium
This is another game-changing feature of YouTube Premium. With a subscription to Premium, you also get to use YouTube Music. Further, YouTube Music, in our opinion, is a solid music streaming service, especially the recommendation algorithm. This certainly helped us save some money on buying an additional subscription for a music streaming service.
7. Continue Watching Paused Videos
Using the same YouTube Premium account on different devices, you can continue watching videos from exactly where you left off. This certainly helps you keep better track of your YouTube videos and never miss out on completing the video you were hooked on.
8. Use Listening Controls on YouTube Videos
YouTube’s video playback controls have been pretty barebones. However, if you end up purchasing YouTube Premium, you get an array of video playback controls. This makes up for a better viewing experience. You get controls to move forward in the video, save the video, pause/play and change the playback speed.
9. Use Picture in Picture
Here’s another feature that’ll help you play YouTube videos even after you exit the app. Got an important task to finish or monitor but want to continue watching your YouTube video as you complete your task? YouTube Premium has a picture-in-picture feature that’s made for situations like these. You can jump to another app, and your YouTube video will continue to play in a smaller window at the corner of your screen.
10. Queue Videos on YouTube
If you are planning to binge-watch YouTube videos, and already have in mind what to watch, here’s another reason to consider YouTube Premium. You can add YouTube videos to the queue and you can watch the next video as per your choice without having to search for it and then play it.
11. Co-Watch YouTube Videos With Google Meet (Android)
Google Meet has a feature for YouTube Premium subscribers that lets you watch videos with your friends on Google Meet. You can have a YouTube watch party of your own, and have fun watching your favorite YouTube videos with your friends! However, this feature is available on Android devices only. What’s more? Only the host needs to have a Premium membership and the other participants in the meeting can be a part of it irrespective. That’s pretty neat considering how almost all streaming services require subscriptions for the watch party host as well as participants.
12. YouTube Afterparties and Live Chat
YouTube Premium members can get exclusive viewing access to live streams from artists called Afterparties. Further, you can interact with your favorite artist using the Live Chat option. If you do not want to miss out on some content and the idea of an exclusive live stream excites you, this is a good reason to purchase YouTube Premium.
13. Early Access to New Features on YouTube
As a YouTube Premium subscriber, you may get early access to features that YouTube is planning to launch. Therefore, you get to use these features before anyone else and perhaps even provide feedback about the same to YouTube. Moreover, YouTube announcing new features is in the works often, and if you can’t wait for some of these to be launched, your best bet is to jump on the YouTube Premium bandwagon.
Go Premium
We hope this article explains everything you need to know about YouTube Premium and all its features. However, we still feel it misses out on a few features like an option to stream the audio when you are playing podcasts, and more features when it comes to creating and sorting playlists. But given the rate at which the platform is updated with features, we can hope for these to be launched soon! The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
