YouTube Testing Ability for Users to Zoom Into Videos

[MacRumors]

YouTube is testing the ability for users to zoom into videos on iOS as part of its suite of features offered to premium subscribers.

The "Pinch to zoom" feature is available as an experimenatal feature to YouTube Premium subscribers, and as it sounds, lets viewers zoom up to 8x into a video as they're watching it. The feature will be available until September 1 and may become a permanent fixture of the YouTube Premium package somewhere down the line.

YouTube has been rolling out picture-in-picture to all users in the U.S. and premium subscribers globally over the last several weeks.

Article Link: YouTube Testing Ability for Users to Zoom Into Videos

 

[UltimateSyn]

Zooming… a premium feature… YouTube is insane.

 

[KurtWilde]

I’m still waiting for picture in picture in the app

 

[CheesePuff]

I’m still waiting for picture in picture in the app

Mine finally arrived yesterday (in the US, iPhone 13 Pro Max on the latest YouTube app release)

 

[WWPD]

ZOOM a premium feature from Google/YouTube, something browsers could do since 1995.

 

[syklee26]

Zooming as a premium feature.... that sounds too much like premium feature for adult video websites.

 

[JosephAW]

Doing that now using safari

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

Finally an opportunity to make 8k meaningful

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

"may become a permanent fixture of the YouTube Premium package somewhere down the line."

Yeah are you guessing or what ? Where does that information even come from I wonder

 

[antiprotest]

I turned it on but it didn't work so I turned it off.

 

[CarlJ]

YouTube testing a special new feature for zooming…

… or you could just turn on Zoom in iOS’s Accessibility section in the Settings as, and then double-tap on the screen with three fingers, to zoom in - in any app. 😱

 

[The Game 161]

thought this was a thing but I've switched it on to try it I guess

 

[usagora]

"may become a permanent fixture of the YouTube Premium package somewhere down the line."

Yeah are you guessing or what ? Where does that information even come from I wonder

The word "may" pretty clearly indicates they aren't making a definite statement. And why on earth would YouTube experiment with a feature they had zero intention of possibly making permanent?

 

[usagora]

Doing that now using safari

YouTube testing a special new feature for zooming…

… or you could just turn on Zoom in iOS’s Accessibility section in the Settings as, and then double-tap on the screen with three fingers, to zoom in - in any app. 😱

Ok, well we're not talking about Safari or iOS Accessibility settings. We're talking about a native feature to the YouTube app. This reminds me of when people will complain about a new macOS feature with "Windows could do this years ago" as if that's relevant. You might as well also say, "Doing this now with a magnifying glass" 🤣

EDIT: For those disagreeing with emojis - would be sort of nice if you explain how anything I said here is incorrect. Thanks.

 

[Apple247]

Every time I use the YouTube app I'm stunned by it's contempt for the user. You'd be hard-pressed to design a worse video player.

 

[atiffarooq]

I’ve heard that zooming in to a video will become available to all but then being able to zoom back out will only be available to premium subscribers 😂

 

[Ninjasrule]

I’m still waiting for picture in picture in the app

I finally got PiP after weeks of waiting. I am a premium member. Found that Pip worked only if I logged out of my account. Then yesterday, PiP works now on my premium account. Hopefully you get your PiP access. it's really annoying they didn't just roll it out to everyone.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

The word "may" pretty clearly indicates they aren't making a definite statement. And why on earth would YouTube experiment with a feature they had zero intention of possibly making permanent?

Yeah cool ,then let's add may to everything we want to say ,may will forgive it .

I'm talking about the fact that it'll remain a premium feature .ofc they wish to roll it to the public and make it permanent ,that i don't deny

 

[BootsWalking]

Doing that now using safari

Is there a way to make the zoom sticky though? When I pinch-to-zoom on iOS Safari during YouTube playback the video only stays zoomed while my two fingers are on the screen, which blocks some of the video content I'm trying to watch. Thanks in advance.

 

[sw1tcher]

Ok, well we're not talking about Safari or iOS Accessibility settings. We're talking about a native feature to the YouTube app. This reminds me of when people will complain about a new macOS feature with "Windows could do this years ago" as if that's relevant. You might as well also say, "Doing this now with a magnifying glass" 🤣

Well, to be fair, no where in the post does it mention this is specifically about the YouTube app. All it says is

"YouTube is testing the ability for users to zoom into videos on iOS as part of its suite of features offered to premium subscribers."

So using the YouTube app offers a degraded and limited user experience vs Safari? 🤣 Another reason why web browser > apps

 

[1557750]

YouTube’s income is hurting with just ads alone. I think charging users (forcing premium) to zoom in on videos will finally get them out of the hole. Best of luck to them…

 

[HQuest]

I tried this feature and it is interesting to figure some details while watching on a small phone screen.

But then I lost Picture in Picture feature I had from past preview days, and this was much more useful than the zoom option.

A month later and all I can think of is I was moved to the back of their queue. *sigh*

 

[tastesliketailpipe]

Why tho? Won’t be the shot that director intended.

 

[Small White Car]

Zooming… a premium feature… YouTube is insane.

ZOOM a premium feature from Google/YouTube, something browsers could do since 1995.

I just checked Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, and Amazon Prime and none of them offer this feature. Not sure why everyone here thinks this is old news when no one else is doing it.

(I can zoom in Apollo, my 3rd party Reddit app, but it seems to be a rare feature for video streaming as far as I can tell.)

So using the YouTube app offers a degraded and limited user experience vs Safari? 🤣 Another reason why web browser > apps

Not really. I just tested it and it's impossible to actually do.

If you play the video in full screen it lets you zoom until you let go and it rubber-bands back. So technically zoom, I guess? But not in any practical sense if you can't actually let it play while you let go of the screen.

It will zoom while you're not in full screen mode, but it becomes impossible to slide around the screen and you get stuck looking at wherever you landed. And you can only access the specific 'play' or 'skip' control that happens to be in front of you at any given moment and you might even have to force-quit safari if you didn't leave any edges of the screen visible to grab.

It is also unusable.

So, no, Safari does not offer this feature either.

 

[lazyrighteye]

Every time I use the YouTube app I'm stunned by it's contempt for the user. You'd be hard-pressed to design a worse video player.

I mean, it is Google.