YouTube now offers high quality 1080p video on web for premium subscribers

Premium subscribers can also freely download video, stream offline and host Google Meet session to watch videos in groups

YouTube, one of the largest video streaming platforms, has enabled high-quality 1080p viewing experience on its web interface for its premium subscribers, according to a report by TechCrunch. This comes months after the enhanced bitrate option was made available for premium members on mobile devices. The platform had initially rolled this out as an experiment in February before launching it for iOS users in April.

According to YouTube's blogpost on this new update in April, this new feature allows users to experience an "even deeper visual quality". Aside from this, premium members can download videos to view offline, user progress in videos is saved so they can pick up where they left off even after switching devices, and even watch videos with other members through Google Meet.

 

The non-enhanced version of 1080p is still available to non-premium members as it has been since November 2009.

Also Read: YouTube hikes prices on US premium plans; annual subscription up $20

YouTube had recently increased its premium plan to $13.99/month from the previous $11.99 in the United States. However, the plans seem to have stayed the same for Indian subscribers. In India, one month plan costs Rs 139 while auto-renewal plans cost Rs 129 per month. There are also three-month (Rs 399) and annual (Rs 1159) plans with family and student price variations also available.

According to the TechCrunch report, the company is also testing a higher bitrate for live 1080p content.

This comes after the platform added new features to its Shorts to attract more creators onto the platform. These features include six new tools such as collab for remixing videos in side-by-side format, suggestions for remixing videos and replying to comments with a Shorts video and saving them to playlists, among others. The company is also testing a mobile-first vertical live experience for creators to get discovered on the Shorts feed.

Also Read: Google's YouTube Shorts platform launches new features for creators