Google rolls out lots of new YouTube features including quick 2x playback speed and more

Google is rolling out a large number of features on its YouTube video streaming service. Many of them are designed to give users faster ways to speed up playback on a video, or to lock one down so you don't accidentally cause it to stop, fast forward, or rewind.

'The official YouTube blog has the details on these changes. One of the big new features is made specifically for people who like to watch videos at faster than normal speeds:

When watching a video either in full screen or portrait mode, just press and hold down anywhere on the player to automatically bump your playback speed to 2x. Once you get to the part of the video you want, simply let go! This feature will be available across web, tablets, and mobile devices.

Then there's the new lock screen feature which will keep your video playing even if you might tap on pause or some other control. In order to enable it, go to a YouTube video's settings icon and tap on it, then tap on the Screen lock option. The video will keep playing no matter what. If you want to unlock it, just tap anywhere on the video and the Tap to unlock icon will appear so you can tap it.

Another new mode that is actually rolling out today on mobile devices is called stable volume. When you watch a YouTube video on the mobile app, this feature is automatically toggled on so that there won't be huge ups and downs in a video's volume level. This feature can be toggled off in a video's settings.

Android devices will get a new AI feature in the next few weeks that will allow users to find a song that's on YouTube just by the user playing, singing, or humming a tune into the app.

Google is also going to ditch the Libary tab in YouTube on mobile and the web. In its place, there will be the new You tab. That's where users will be able to see their previously watched videos, playlists, downloads, and purchases. It will also replace the Account tab as it will have all of those settings as well.

Again, most of these new features, and more will be rolled out over the next few weeks so it may be a little while before you see these changes.

Source