YouTube is currently conducting an intriguing experiment aimed at assisting individuals, like myself, who have a keen desire to watch videos at the utmost speed conceivable. According to YouTube’s experiments page (via 9to5Google), this test is available to YouTube Premium subscribers who can willingly participate. The experimental feature allows users to set the playback speed to 2x simply by long-pressing on the video player.
This potential improvement appears to be a significant leap forward; presently, increasing the playback speed on YouTube requires navigating through a few cumbersome steps. On the mobile app, users have to tap the video, access the three dots menu, select playback speed, and then choose from various options. A comparable sequence of actions applies to both mobile and desktop web versions. (However, on desktop, you have the option to use Shift and the less-than or greater-than keys to accelerate or decelerate playback speed without delving into the menus.) Interestingly, this new feature seems to draw inspiration from TikTok, where long-pressing a video brings up multiple choices, including a playback speed menu.
According to the experiments page, YouTube’s long-press test will run until August 13th. As I am not a Premium subscriber, I am unable to personally test it, but I sincerely hope that YouTube decides to implement this feature for all users after the experiment concludes. (And if there is a kind soul at YouTube reading this, please consider allowing users to watch videos at speeds faster than 2x.)