YouTube, a well-known platform for sharing videos, is gaining a new feature that will allow users of Android and Google TV to watch some films in “1080p Premium” quality. The feature was previously only accessible to YouTube Premium members on iOS, but it appears that some free users are also gaining the option on Android and Google TV, according to a recent report. Many users believed that YouTube was going to restrict 1080p streaming to premium users when it first began rolling out the capability for Apple devices earlier this year, but Google quickly clarified that this was not the case.
According to the company, it’s essentially “an enhanced bitrate version of 1080p,” with better video quality that gives more information. For those who are unaware, higher bitrate videos offer greater visual quality and are especially helpful if you enjoy watching sports or gaming videos with plenty of motion and fine details. Subsequently, subscribers to YouTube Premium will automatically get the option to change the video quality to 1080p Premium, while free users must do so manually.
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However, this feature is presently only available for videos that were posted in 1080p quality. Unfortunately, Shorts, live streams, and videos with higher or lower resolutions will not have the choice. Consequently, it is yet not known whether Google will progressively push out the functionality or whether this is some sort of internal testing because 1080p Premium appears to be only available for select users.
