YouTube is no doubt a to-go app for video streaming. You don’t search for a video on Google, you YouTube it and that is where it highlights its dominance. Well, YouTube works intelligently by altering video resolutions of videos based on the user’s network connection and other factors. Cut to now, YouTube has simplified the feature by adding revamped video quality controls that let users decide how they want their viewing experience to be.
YouTube’s revamped video quality controls
YouTube now lets users control the video quality either for individual videos or set it up as default via its new video quality controls. Go to any specific video and tap on its resolution offered. You will get three options here that are “Auto”, “Higher picture quality”, and “Data saver”.
To simplify it, when a user selects “Auto”, YouTube contemplates the user’s internet connection and other factors to change video quality appropriately. A 720p video on a poor network will buffer a lot and that is what “Auto” works best in, it dynamically changes video quality based on the available strength of the internet connection.
Setting the video resolution to “High picture quality” will unlock 720p and higher video resolutions on specific videos by default. It will still consume more data but overall, the video quality will be premium. Note that you may not be able to set it at “4K” since not all videos available on YouTube have 4K resolutions. Finally, select “Data Saver” which does what it looks like, it dials down the video resolution based to 480p and below to prevent overconsumption of data. These were the options that users can select for current videos only.
You can go to Settings >> Video Quality Preferences to override video quality on all videos played on YouTube. Here, the YouTube app has separate settings for video playing on mobile networks and on Wi-Fi where users can set the former as “Auto ” and the latter as “Higher picture quality” or as preferred.
According to the reports, the revamped video quality controls are now available on both iOS and Android apps. Users can update the YouTube app to get the feature if not already available.
