Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- YouTube Premium is getting three new features: On-the-go, Auto speed, and Ask Music for podcasts.
- They’re available to Premium subscribers on Android and will roll out to iOS devices in the coming months.
YouTube is one of the biggest platforms for people to listen to podcasts. It has over one billion monthly active viewers watching podcast content. It also offers a plethora of useful features to Premium subscribers, including background play, jump ahead, and faster playback speed options than non-Premium users. Now, it’s getting even better for users who listen to podcasts on the platform.
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YouTube is introducing three new features designed to make your experience listening to podcasts easier and more enjoyable: On-the-go mode, Auto speed, and Ask Music — which is now expanding to podcasts.
On-the-go mode offers easier access to listening controls for videos playing in the background — like skipping around back and forth. It’s meant to offer Premium members a better experience while they’re out and mobile.
It’s also introducing Auto speed for more efficient listening. That’s designed to smartly tweak playback speed to be faster when it detects slow speech, or optimize playback during parts that are packed with information.
On-the-go mode and Auto speed were already available as experimental features in the YouTube app, but are now rolling out for all for Premium members.
YouTube’s Ask Music feature is also expanding to podcasts, two years after its initial launch. Though it’s not expanding to more countries, it will now be able to offer podcast recommendations based on a specific genre you’re interested in or depending on your mood. It will also be able to surface podcasts that it thinks you might like according to shows you already enjoy listening to.
On-the-go mode and Auto speed are available to Premium members on Android right now, and will roll out to iOS users in the coming months. Ask Music is already available to subscribers in select countries, and you should be able to use it for podcast recommendations right away.
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