YouTube is providing its Premium subscribers with an
enhanced version of the 1080p HD video quality. It is meant to make videos that
are heavy on detail and motion appear sharper. YouTube further clarified that
the feature won’t be available for all videos, including Shorts, livestreams, and
videos at resolutions higher or lower than 1080p.
While it may be hard to distinguish the regular 1080p resolution from 1080p Premium, the difference is technically in the latter being able to pack more information per pixel.
In addition to video quality enhancement, YouTube is
bringing several other elements to the Premium package. These include the
option to watch videos with friends and family members using FaceTime via
SharePlay, the ability to pick up where you left off on videos, the Smart Downloads
tool, and expansion of the Queuing feature.
The Queuing feature, that allows creating a list of videos
to watch, is being expanded to phones and tablets. The Smart Downloads
feature automatically adds recommended videos to a user’s library via Wi-Fi, enabling
them to view the downloaded videos in offline mode. This, however, has a
downside to it as too many downloaded videos would eventually take up too much
space.
The new 1080p resolution feature is currently being rolled out to Premium subscribers using iOS devices and will later be launched for web as well.
