Like other streaming options out there, YouTube Premium has been getting more expensive in recent years. Separately, Google has been trying to put a stop to ad blocker use on the free YouTube experience. Then, Google canceled YouTube Premium subscriptions made via VPNs. These moves indicate that Google is trying to make more money from YouTube through direct Premium subscriptions or advertising.
But it turns out that Google wants to offer additional choices to YouTube Premium customers. It’s unclear what that means exactly, and you shouldn’t get too excited about YouTube Premium getting cheaper anytime soon. But Google said it’s considering other options for its paid plans.
Google also wants to help you share your benefits with friends in the future. The company didn’t offer any details on such password-sharing plans, but this will likely involve some sort of cost to the user.
Google dropped the news that it’s considering changes to the YouTube Premium plans in a support document that addresses various other updates. The following paragraph appears toward the end of the document that explains new YouTube features, improved download experiences, and better-quality streaming:
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Google currently offers three YouTube Premium plans. In the US, you can choose between the Student ($7.99), Individual ($13.99), and Family ($22.99) plans. It’s unclear whether YouTube would consider any other price points and whether YouTube Premium can get cheaper. After all, it wasn’t long ago that Google raised the Individual plan to $13.99/month.
The password-sharing option might be more interesting to some people. Well, password-sharing isn’t the best descriptor here, considering that people won’t want to share passwords to YouTube accounts that also happen to be Google accounts. Their friends would get access to everything in that Google account.
Instead, Google might want to let you add users to your YouTube Premium subscription, similar to Netflix’s paid password-sharing plans. Netflix lets you add users to your account for a monthly fee. That’s the only official way to share access to a Netflix account right now. As for Google, I’m only speculating at this point. It’s unclear when Google will let you share YouTube Premium subscriptions with friends and family.
While we wait for more details about Google’s YouTube Premium plans, you should know the app is getting a few new features. “Jump ahead” is a way to fast-forward a video to the most viewed sections. YouTube will use AI to get you there. Jump Ahead works on Android in the US, but it’ll be available to Premium users on iPhone in the future.
Furthermore, Google will let you watch YouTube Shorts in picture-in-picture mode on Android phones and tablets.
Finally, YouTube Premium users can opt-in to experience and test features that are in development at this link.