Back in October, Google announced that members of the YouTube community would be allowed to choose which features developers should prioritize and work on for the app allowing you to watch YouTube on television, and the app that allows you to view YouTube on a game console. Each quarter, a list with the top features requested by the YouTube community for the these versions of YouTube will be disseminated. The features receiving the most up votes by community members will be prioritized for development.
Also, if you have an idea that is not on the list, you are welcome to bring it to Google’s attention. If enough community members mention the same idea in their responses, it just might get added to the voting list. YouTube community members recently voted to add the following feature to the television and console YouTube apps: the ability to Post and View comments.
In a similar, but not exactly the same manner, Team YouTube took to its Twitter site on Thursday to ask “what feature do you want the most on ad-supported @YouTube Music.” The choices (and only one could be selected) and the current percentage of votes captured include:
- background play (55.3%)
- better recommendations (20.1%)
- improvements to lyrics (14%)
- sleep timer (10.6%)
There are still four days left to vote. For now, the majority of those choosing one of the four choices want the app to remain open in the background so that it will continue to play even when you’ve left YouTube Music to open another app. But guess what? Background play is available to those who pay for a premium YouTube Music subscription. After a free three-month trial, the service costs $9.99 per month.
Background play is the leading feature that YouTube community members would like to see added to ad-supported YouTube Music
We should point out that background play is also available to those using the ad-supported version of YouTube Music in Canada. This could be a feature that Google widens to the U.S. and perhaps beyond. The sleep timer feature could also be soon on the way. Back in July, code found in the YouTube Music app left a strong hint that a sleep timer would be coming to the app soon. This would allow users to set a countdown timer that would turn off the app when it reached 00:00. Users who fall asleep listening to music from the app will be grateful for its inclusion.
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