5 Things You Need To Know Before Subscribing To YouTube Premium
So you finally decided to fix those scratches on your car and give it a much-needed deep clean in the process. But because you're no mechanic or auto detailer by nature, you, of course, went straight to YouTube to watch some tutorials. It's all fine and dandy for the first couple of minutes until the ads start playing and disrupting your workflow. And because your hands are greasy and full of tools and cleaning supplies, you have no choice but to sit through the two miserable 30-second ads.
If you're just as annoyed about ads as anyone else, YouTube Premium might be what you need. Not only do you get to avoid ads on YouTube and YouTube Music, but you can also use fancy features like downloads, automatic video resumption, PiP, and better video quality. However, before you get too excited and click on that inviting Get YouTube Premium button, there are a few things you probably didn't know about YouTube and its premium service first.
Experimental features
One perk of being on a Premium subscription is access to experimental features. Premium members have the privilege to explore newly developed features first before they become publicly available (or scratched, depending on the development team). To try out these experiments, all you have to do is visit the new features page, browse through the selection, and click the Try out button on your experiment of choice.
You can, however, only use one experiment at a time. If you feel bored with the first experiment and want to play around with the other available options, you can readily turn off the first one from the same features page. Each of the experiments only runs for a set timeframe, which you'll find in the experiment's description. Before the period ends, you're free to send in your thoughts and feedback to YouTube.
At the moment, there's only one available experimental feature up for testing: Playables. They're games you can play straight from YouTube with no need for downloads or installations.
Conditions on cheaper subscription plans
At $13.99 a month, individual YouTube Premium subscriptions can be quite pricey for some people. The good news is that you can always go for the cheaper options like the Annual plan, which you can get at $139.99, the Family plan for $22.99 a month for all five members plus the manager, and the Student plan for $7.99 a month. But while they are less expensive, they also come with some conditions.
Annual plans are for individual subscriptions only and are currently location-specific. As of this writing, they're exclusive for those in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, India, and Thailand. You also can't subscribe to an annual plan with an active subscription. You'd need to cancel your current plan first. Unlike other plans, annual memberships don't auto-renew at the end of the year, so if you want to use the same plan, you'd have to manually re-subscribe.
Family subscriptions have certain restrictions as well. The family manager and all five members should be living in the same home, using regular Google accounts (not Google Workspace accounts), and don't belong to any other family group. The manager must also be at least 18, but the members can be as young as 13.
While almost anyone can use the annual and family plans, student memberships, on the other hand, are based on eligibility. Only full-time students at SheerID-recognized institutions can avail of the plan. There's also a cap on the subscription duration: at most four consecutive years, with annual re-verification of student status required. You can always opt out of your student subscription when you know you're already ineligible for the discounted rate, but failing to do so will automatically convert your active account to the regular individual plan.
Streaming limits
With YouTube Premium, streaming is a lot less stressful as you won't have to deal with annoying ads popping out right when you get to the best part of the videos. YouTube, however, still enforces certain streaming limitations that can affect your viewing and listening experience.
First off, YouTube has ad-free movies — which you get with your subscription and can be accessed on the app by going to You > Your Movies & TV > Free. But they can only be streamed simultaneously on a maximum of two devices. If you've subscribed to a family plan, you can watch the movies on a maximum of four devices. As for videos in the music category, the streaming limit is set to only one device at a time, no more, no less.
In both cases, different hardware (phone, tablet, or computer) and software (browser or app) are considered different devices. So, if you're trying to stream a movie on Chrome and Edge on the same computer and on the YouTube app on your iPhone, you're already exceeding the limit. The playback will pause on one of your devices, with an error message saying that the content is being watched elsewhere.
Restrictions on downloaded videos
Probably one of the best benefits you can get from YouTube Premium is downloads for offline viewing. Whenever your home Wi-Fi is acting up, or you're out in the woods with no service, you can turn to the content you've downloaded to keep you entertained. However, there are a few important caveats about these downloaded videos that you should be aware of.
Starting with how you can download YouTube content, this feature is only available if you're using the YouTube app on your iOS and Android device and browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera on your computer. Any other browsers outside of these four options are yet to offer support for downloads. These videos also expire after 29 days without an internet connection. So, if you are offline for longer than this period but are looking forward to watching that one TED Talk about organizing your home, you need to do so within that timeframe. Otherwise, an internet connection is required to reaccess the video. It's worth noting, however, that you might not get all your downloaded videos back after reconnecting to the internet. Creators can change their content's offline playback permissions, so some videos wouldn't be available for download anymore and would automatically disappear from your Downloads list.
Another key point to remember about YouTube downloads is that while they're called as such, don't expect the videos to show up on your gallery. Yes, they're saved to your device, but they're encrypted and only viewable using YouTube. Keep in mind that the number of devices allowed to download videos is limited to ten as well.
Premium benefits and locations
YouTube Premium is currently only available in 110 locations across the globe, including countries like Luxembourg and Japan and territories such as the Cayman Islands and Guam. If you live in or travel to a country or region where Premium memberships are offered, you can enjoy your Premium benefits without limitations. However, once you travel outside of these areas, you may lose some perks temporarily.
For instance, on your YouTube app, ads will start popping up while you're watching videos again. Downloads and background play will also be unavailable for use. You can, however, still get to view your favorite YouTube Original movies and series and any downloaded content you saved before leaving the supported locations (do note that downloads will no longer be accessible after the 29-day offline availability period). On the other hand, you get to keep your YouTube Music perks even when you're in an unsupported area. That means you can still listen to Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo without any ad interruption, play some catchy tunes with your screen off, and download music for offline listening, but you do need to be using the YouTube Music app for this and not the YouTube app itself.