Tech
More YouTube Premium plans are coming
YouTube is working on new plans for its YouTube Premium subscriptions, the company said in a community post on Thursday. “We’re committed to bringing members more plan options by expanding our existing offers to more regions, while also introducing new plans and exploring ways for you to share your benefits with friends in the future,” according to a post from a YouTube team member identified as Hazel.
Currently, there are only a handful of YouTube Premium plans: Individual for $13.99 per month (or 12 months for $139.99); Family for $22.99 per month; and Student for $7.99 per month. By subscribing, you get perks like ad-free videos, the ability to download videos to watch offline, and ad-free access to the YouTube Music library. Thursday’s post didn’t specify what any of the new plans might look like or what benefits you might be able to share, and YouTube didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
YouTube is also adding new features for Premium subscribers, as detailed in the community post and a separate blog post. An AI-powered “jump ahead” feature, which recently launched on Android, will arrive on iOS “in the next few weeks.” On Android, Premium users will be able to watch YouTube Shorts in picture-in-picture mode (a feature that’s already available on TikTok).
Premium subscribers will also have access to a handful of experiments they can opt in to, including having batches of Shorts automatically download to your phone so you can watch offline, a conversational AI assistant (which the company is bringing back following a previous test), and a redesigned watch page on desktop.