YouTube Music Now Allows Switching Seamlessly Between Audio and Music Videos
A big selling point of YouTube Music is, well, the YouTube part of the service. Not only is there a ton of music available on YouTube, but there are loads of videos as well, which is what got YouTube on the map in the first place. That works for music, too, with tons and tons of music videos available to stream, if you’re looking for something a little more visual when you jam out. Google’s leaning into that with the latest update to YouTube Music, which now supports switching seamlessly between audio and music videos.
Easy switching between audio and video is now possible
So what does that mean, exactly? Let’s say you’re listening to a song and there happens to be a music video available. You can turn your phone on, hop over to the app, and tap the video button at the top of the screen and the music video will immediately start playing at whatever part of the song you’re in, with no gaps, interruptions, or other issues. It goes the other way, too, so you can flip between the audio and video at any time. Switching between the two happens seamlessly, picking up at the same moment in the track in the other format. The transition is said to be seamless for “uninterrupted listening and watching,” and this has been made possible because of the company’s “perfectly time-matched” more than 5 million official music videos and audio tracks. In other words, users can switch back and forth between the music video and just the audio track over and over again without going out of sync.
Where in the app is the feature available?
Listeners on YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium now have the option to toggle between the audio version of a song and its official music video at will. The feature is available in the YouTube Music app for both Android and iOS mobile platforms. In an official blog post, YouTube announced that YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscribers can now switch between the music video and just the sound of the song they’re listening to at a tap of a button, which is located at the top of the screen when playing music.
If you want to now play audio songs only… that’s possible too!
You might have been wondering whether the app can be set to play only songs by default. This always sounded very simple considering the video already has the audio encoded, but there was never an option to do this basic task. Good news, now there is an option. That means there would be any videos at all. In the settings, there is a new option that reads “Don’t play music videos,” and users can change their preference by switching that option. So those listeners who never want to watch videos in the app can now rejoice at this new choice (like me).
What’s next, now?
We aren’t sure at this stage but something like this is sure to be followed by something more. The innovation on Google’s end never ends. Recent advancements like incorporating augmented reality directly into Search prove that.
