The YouTube Android app, and probably also iOS in the future, may soon be updated with new movie settings. It is possible to indicate the preferred quality of playback, which has an impact on the use of data when you are out of Wi-Fi range. Currently, these settings are more lean and less precise.
The upcoming changes were noticed by the team from XDA Developers , which analyzed YouTube’s APK file on Android. Among the strings, texts were found that suggested preparations for implementing new settings related to the default quality of played movies. Shortly thereafter, the guesses were further confirmed on Twitter by Jane Manchun Wong in reverse engineering.
YouTube is reportedly working on “Video quality preferences” (via @xdadevelopers) and this is what it looks like https://t.co/DsJ7O0SoWh pic.twitter.com/xpt2x5zPKa
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) March 25, 2020
The new settings in the application are to allow users to indicate in what quality they want to play movies by default, regardless of connection via Wi-Fi and mobile network. Currently, it is possible to turn on the data saving mode at most out of Wi-Fi range, and in other cases the movies are played with the highest available quality, which is achievable while maintaining smooth playback.
For now, however, it is not known when the new settings would appear in the application. It is also difficult to state unequivocally whether their implementation is associated with recent restrictions on the default quality of YouTube videos due to increased interest in the site because of coronavirus.
