Get ready for YouTube’s annoying new resolution selector

YouTube is the most popular video streaming app in the world, and a lot of us depend on it for our daily dose of news and entertainment. However, not everyone has the same preferences or needs when deciding the streaming quality of videos. With this in mind, YouTube is rolling out a “simplified” set of streaming quality controls that will let you tailor your viewing experience. But we’re not sure you’re going to like them.

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Until now, we’ve had the option to individually select the streaming quality or choose Auto, which automatically changes the quality depending on the speed of the internet connection. The newer controls offer a more “friendly” set of new options for users who don’t understand video resolution, but they bury quality selector — rather annoyingly — with an additional tap.

The first one is Higher picture quality which uses more data to deliver a better quality stream. YouTube hasn’t clarified, but this will probably deliver 720p and above. But if you’re on limited data, you can choose the second option, Data saver, which is self-explanatory.

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These streaming quality preferences can be set separately for mobile data and WiFi.

The Auto option is still there and will dynamically adjust the streaming quality depending on bandwidth. Lastly, there is the Advanced option that lets you select a specific resolution you want the video to play in and you can set the resolution as high as 4K. Unfortunately, this last option needs to be activated for each video individually — you can’t choose to play all videos at a specific resolution by default.

The new streaming controls seem to be widely available for both Android and iOS users. If you don’t see them yet, try updating the app via the Play Store or grab the latest update from APK Mirror.

Thanks: Siddharth, Kiran, Najmi