by YouTube has introduced support for podcasts in the latest Android version of the YouTube Music app, with features that allow you to add episodes to the playback queue or switch podcast videos to audio-only versions.
In February, the music streaming service developed by YouTube enabled a new feature that allows users to create custom radio stations with the music of your favorite artists.
Now, YouTube continues to implement new features to improve the user experience. Thus, the platform is including support for playing podcasts with various functions, as 9to5Google has been able to verify after analyzing the code of the latest version of the Google application in the Play Store.
Specifically, users will be able to add podcast episodes to the play queue and select them to play directly next, just as you can currently do with songs to listen to them after the current playback ends.
Following this line, users will be able to activate options such as changing the playback format of the podcast, varying from video mode to the audio-only version. Similarly, YouTube also makes it possible to configure the ‘Don’t play podcast videos’ option, which complements the existing ‘Don’t play music videos’ option.
On the other hand, heSaved podcasts will appear in the ‘Library’ tab, next to the downloaded songs and episodes. Also, this update also modifies the search bar suggestion that, instead of showing “Search songs, albums and artists”, it will propose “Search songs, artists, podcasts”.
On top of all that, the app’s sleep timer feature is updated to support multi-hour countdowns, keeping in mind that podcast shows can be long-running.
These new features have been implemented in version 5.48 for Android. According to 9to5Google, podcasts will begin rolling out “soon” in the United States. Until then, YouTube is also rolling out support for creators in YouTube Studio with features like the ability to tag playlists as shows.
How to listen to YouTube videos with the phone screen off, free and without advertising
Currently, users of Android devices can turn to the Vivaldi web browser, which makes it possible to play the audio of YouTube videos in the background, for free and without having to add strange plug-ins that can affect the operation of the phone.
Recently, in the browser’s official blog, it was announced that the latest update of the application incorporated several new features and one of the most outstanding features was the possibility of being able to keep listening to the audio of YouTube videos in the background directly from the browser.
So it will not be necessary to pay a monthly subscription to YouTube Premium to listen to all the music or other content offered by the Google service.
In order to activate this option initially, it is necessary to go to the Google Play Store and perform the download from the web browser named ‘Vivaldi’which operates completely free of charge.
Once the browser installation is done, it will be necessary to open the YouTube website and execute the following steps:
- From the browser, the user must go to the tab manager (option located in the lower right corner of the screen)
- Touch the icon of three vertical dots that is located in the upper right part
- Enter the ‘Settings’ option
- Turn on the ‘Allow background audio playback’ feature
- Click on the ‘Restart’ button for the changes made in the browser to be applied
After executing these steps it is necessary to use the browser to enter the YouTube website, then a video from the platform will have to be played and when the user exits the browser app or turns off their phone screen they will notice that the playback will not stop.
Thanks to this resource it will be possible to check social networks or open other applications while continuing to listen to the audio of a YouTube video, this will eliminate the discomfort generated by having to keep the cell phone screen on and especially when the user is walking down the street. or aboard public transport bus.
It should be noted that for this tool to work perfectly it is advisable to access the Vivaldi browser settings and go to the ‘Web pages’ option, there it will be necessary to activate the function ‘Stay in the browser’. Carrying out this process will prevent the official YouTube application from opening if you want to play the video.
With information from Europa Press
