It can turn YouTube into a true music player on smartphones

Google is testing a new feature on YouTube to show full audio playback controls. This is clearly an option reserved for Premium subscribers.

YouTube Logo // Source: Alexander Shatov

The Music streaming service The most used in the world is not Spotify nor Apple Music, but actually YouTube. Not YouTube Music, YouTube, video platform, often use to listen music for free. Google understood this and wanted to provide an experience that is closer to what you expect from an audio playback app.

YouTube is trying to play music

According to 9to5Google, YouTube is offering some users a new feature shown in the form of ‘View listening controls«(«View listening controls»In French) on music and video. When the user clicks this button, the interface changes to show the controls (play, pause, previous / next track). The button is also used to manage the reading speed, which ranges from 0.25x to 2x. In short, nothing new, except for the way it is displayed.

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As it really is on YouTube, the Previous Track button leads directly to … the previous track. If this sounds normal, remember that the vast majority of music players (if not all) return to the beginning of the current song when you press this button and only allow you to return to the previous song by pressing a second time.

A / B testing for Premium Members

At the moment, the number of subscribers who can access this new design appears to be very small and we have not been able to reproduce the experience. However, 9to5Google points out that someone who viewed this interface was only able to get it on iOS and not on Android despite using the same account on both platforms. It should also be noted that the “premium” sign indicates that only users who subscribe to a subscription can benefit from it.

Google could consider merging YouTube and YouTube Music to make its services easier to manage and allow a smoother transition. In particular, this will allow Google to promote its music streaming service to users of its video streaming service.