YouTube may make changing playback speed as paid feature

YouTube seems to be launching a new experiment with limiting access to the popular playback speed feature. Users have been divided into two groups: one where the feature remains free, the other where it is only available with a Premium subscription.

At least that’s what Reddit users think. One of them noticed that YouTube is probably conducting a new test. As part of it, the audience has been divided into two experimental groups. Members of group A still have free access to changing the playback speed. At the same time, for users from group B, this feature has become paid and is only available as part of YouTube Premium. According to the author of the message, he noticed the experiment because one of his accounts ended up in group B, and the other in group A.

“It seems that there are two test groups. Group A: playback speed remains free. Group B: Changing the playback speed requires a YouTube Premium subscription. Unfortunately, I ended up in Group B. My other account (which I don’t use to post or create content) is in Group A and still has free access to the playback speed. This means that the limit is tied to the account, not the device or region,” wrote Reddit user Background_Solid5886.

More Excuses to Buy a YouTube Subscription

Of course, if YouTube wants to convince more users to subscribe to Premium, the service needs features that are worth paying for. Premium already offers a number of exclusive benefits, including ad-free viewing, background playback, offline downloads, and more. However, this experiment, all things considered, suggests that YouTube may add another “must-have” feature to that list in the future — at the expense of free users of the platform.

Changing the playback speed is one of YouTube’s most popular features. It allows you to speed up or slow down videos. While this feature has been available to almost everyone so far, that could change in the future. If YouTube finds the experiment successful, changing the playback speed could become a permanent feature of the Premium subscription. At the time of writing, there was no official comment from Google on the matter.