Watching YouTube videos on your mobile device can sometimes be tricky, especially if you’re watching out for your data consumption. If you don’t understand the video quality settings, you might end up using all your data allowance on the app because you didn’t understand that 1080p consumes a lot of bandwidth as its the highest quality you can choose. Now they have finally modified the video quality settings to be more understandable and you can now also choose a video quality preference.
YouTube has started testing out the default preferences for your video quality but it will still not be applicable to all videos you watch on the platform. It’s still on a per video basis and you can still manually adjust things, but at least you can now tell the app your preferences and users will be able to easily understand what those video settings mean if they don’t understand the numbers exactly.
According to Android Police, the video quality setting now has three basic options: data saver (low quality), higher picture quality, and auto, where YouTube chooses for you. If you do understand what the numbers mean, you can also choose the advanced option which lets you pick a specific resolution, anywhere from 144p to 1080p. The settings are still on a per video basis so you still have to watch out for it especially if you’re saving up your data.
When you go to the YouTube settings, you’ll see a Video quality preference menu although it is still in the beta phase. You’ll get two distinct settings for the default quality, whether it’s on mobile networks or on Wi-Fi. You won’t be able to pick an exact quality for the whole app but Google will almost always respect your preferences. You can also just trust YouTube to choose your auto settings if you don’t really mind either way.
The appearance of these new settings seems to be a server-side update so you may not be able to see it unless you’re part of the chosen few. Hopefully, YouTube will make it available for more users in the next few days or weeks.
