In addition to announcing its new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Labs program, YouTube has officially launched the anticipated new features for Premium subscribers. Many of these features were previewed at the beginning of the year and are now being integrated into the platform’s core services. Here are the details.

Acceleration is here for YouTube Premium

Premium members can now watch videos faster. YouTube offers the ability to increase playback speeds up to 4x in 0.05x increments on Android, iOS, and the web. This feature previously required a dedicated page, but is now available directly to all Premium users directly in the app or on the website.

The high-quality audio experience isn’t limited to YouTube Music anymore. High-quality audio at a bitrate of 256kbps for official music videos and Art Tracks is now available in the main YouTube app on Android and iOS, making the music listening experience richer and more detailed.

The video viewing experience is becoming more interactive for smart TV and game console users. The “Fast Forward” feature makes it easy to see the most interesting parts and highlights of a video. This allows users to browse a video’s content more quickly and jump directly to the sections they want.

Significant improvements have also been made to YouTube Shorts, particularly on the iOS platform. iOS users can now continue playing Shorts in a small window even while viewing other content on their devices.

The Smart Downloads feature, previously available on Android and in the testing phase on iOS, is now fully available on all iOS devices. This feature automatically downloads the user’s favorite Shorts based on their previous viewing history. This way, new content is always available to watch, even without an internet connection.

So, what are your thoughts on this? Share them in the comments.