YouTube is turning 20 years old this year, and Google is celebrating with some new features across the various YouTube platforms, including YouTube TV, YouTube Kids and the main app.
As part of the celebration, YouTube put up a blog post detailing several interesting stats, including that over 20 million videos are uploaded daily to YouTube.
One of the more interesting announcements from the post includes that YouTube TV is getting a new version of multiview that can be used on non-sports content.
Up to now, it’s mainly been relegated to up to four-screen viewing of football games or binge-watching March Madness basketball.
An example image from the post showed multiview with ESPN, the Weather Channel, an episode of Law & Order on the USA Network, and an episode of Chopped from the Food Network.
The feature will start with “a small group of popular channels and expand in the coming months.”
Other new features
While the non-sports multiview feature was the big YouTube TV announcement, the main YouTube platform is also getting a number of new features.
A new voice reply for comments is coming later this year.
A seemingly AI-powered tool called Ask Music will let you create a personalized radio station by describing your mood or music you’d want to hear. It’s available for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music subscribers now.
Premium members are getting 4x playback speed for those who can speed-watch things.
Additionally, the TV app for YouTube is getting UI updates, including access to comments, channel info, and “easier navigation” and playback quality tweaks. Not too much of a surprise, as YouTube claimed earlier this year that most YouTube views come via the TV app rather than phones or browsers.
Lastly, apparently, there are some hidden features that YouTube is officially acknowledging. These include long pressing on the video player to watch in 2x speed or locking the screen to “avoid interruptions.” There’s also a sleep timer that you can use to watch YouTube before bed.
The blog also highlights keyboard shortcuts that you may not know about. Plus, the Song Search feature, which is like Shazam for YouTube, so that you can hum or sing into it to find a song.
The next time you enjoy YouTube, make sure to check out the official Tom’s Guide YouTube channel, where we cover the latest tech and review all manner of gadgets.
