We all like getting something for free, and when it comes to YouTube, it's no exception. While there are plenty of benefits of spending the $14/£12 a month on YouTube Premium, you might want to test out the whole 'try before you buy' mantra before signing up.
The big draw of YouTube Premium is the ability to skip those annoying ads, but buried a little deeper, you can download videos for offline play, stream music, and even watch YouTube in the background of other apps. Forget all that, because now, you can press the big red button and gain access to a Premium feature for absolutely nothing.
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A new update brings YouTube Premium's Sleep Timer out from behind the paywall, meaning even us Average Joes can enjoy it without a monthly or yearly subscription.
For those who need the soothing sound of something playing in the background to catch our 40 winks, YouTube's Sleep Timer is here to help. Putting a timer on when you want a video playback to stop, it means you can put on that marathon sleep tape or omnibus ofThe Simpsons clips without leaving it running all night. In terms of saving your battery life and sanity of your potential significant other, the YouTube Sleep Timer is a neat little feature.
How to use the YouTube Sleep Timer
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Thankfully, using the YouTube Sleep Timer is relatively easy if you follows these steps:
- Select YouTube video you want to watch
- Find the 'Settings' cog which is in the top right on mobile and bottom right on the web version
- Press 'Sleep Timer'
- Choose how long you want to watch the video for
- Continue watching as normal
You'll see options to watch for 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes, as well as 'End of Video' to play the whole thing. Although Sleep Timer has finally been freed from the clutches of YouTube Premium subscriptions, it's currently only available for all in the United States, although it should hit other territories soon.
The YouTube blog confirms that around two dozen features are being rolled out as part of this supersized update, with user feedback being crucial in helping decide what's coming our way.
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Other perks include QR playlists that others can collaborate with you on, badges for the YouTube and YouTube Music apps, and fine-tunable playback speed.
YouTube continues to evolve, and every day, we're hopefully one step closer to everyone being able to get a Picture-in-Picture player without having to pay for YouTube Premium.