YouTube is testing a new feature for its app on the Android platform, which allows users to zoom in on the video they're watching. This experimental feature is now only available for YouTube Premium subscribers.
As reported by 9to5Google (5/8), users can zoom in on videos by pinching the screen or what is known as a pinch-to-zoom gesture. This feature will work well in landscape, portrait, and full screen views.
YouTube announced the zoom feature will be tested until September 1. This gives the company about a month to gather user feedback and fix things before they go public.
If you are a Premium subscriber, you can find this feature in the YouTube Android app by clicking on your profile photo and selecting Your Premium benefits. From there, you'll find the Try new features page and enable pinch-to-zoom. According to reports, users can enlarge images in videos up to 8x with this feature.
Possibly testing the feature on YouTube Premium subscribers is rolling out gradually, as not all accounts get it. To note, the zoom feature is already present in the desktop browser.
However, with the presence of this feature in the mobile app version, it will provide a more comfortable experience to more users. YouTube also last month reportedly rolled out a picture-in-picture mode for iPhone and iPad users, after first testing it on Premium subscribers and having been available on Android for a long time.
