YouTube recently rolled out new features for its Premium subscribers – an AI-powered ‘Jump Ahead’ function and picture-in-picture capabilities for Shorts.

The Jump Ahead feature, available now to U.S. Premium subscribers on Android and coming later to iOS, uses artificial intelligence and viewership data to identify key moments in videos. 

Users can access these highlights by double-tapping to skip ahead and selecting the Jjump Ahead button.

For YouTube Shorts, the platform introduces a picture-in-picture feature on Android devices, allowing users to watch Shorts while using other apps or checking messages.

Premium subscribers also gain early access to experimental features through youtube.com/new. Current experiments include:

1. Smart downloads for YouTube Shorts, automatically downloading content for offline viewing.
2. A conversational AI tool on Android devices in the U.S. can answer questions and suggest related content without interrupting video playback.
3. A redesigned watch page on web platforms aimed at improving content discovery and comment engagement.

Additional Premium benefits include ad-free viewing, offline playback, and enhanced 1080p HD video quality.

“All of this builds on a major milestone you helped us cross earlier this year, with over 100 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers worldwide,” YouTube stated in a blog post.

YouTube Music Premium offers offline listening, background play, and a Samples tab for music discovery. Through a new partnership, the service has expanded to Garmin watches.

YouTube Making Moves

YouTube recently broadened its partnership with Shopify, allowing more merchants to participate in the platform’s Shopping affiliate program.

The platform also launched “Playables” in May, a feature that allows users to play over 75 free games directly on YouTube.

YouTube Shorts recently hit a milestone of 2 billion monthly users and 70 billion daily views.

However, popular creators like MrBeast are criticized for allegedly using “dishonest” tactics to retain viewer attention during sponsored content segments.

In his “Survive 100 Days In Nuclear Bunker, Win $500,000” video, MrBeast includes a sponsored ad segment for the mobile game Monster Hunter Now.

“Interesting trick from the latest Mr. Beast video – He uses a progress bar that starts moving quickly, then slows to a crawl to make viewers less likely to skip the sponsor segment as they think it will be over quickly,” software engineer Rhys Sullivan wrote on X.