YouTube Premium Lite Gets Better With Background Play and Offline Downloads

YouTube is improving its Premium Lite plan with two new perks, background play and offline downloads. These new benefits will roll out on most non-music videos (excluding Shorts) over the coming weeks in markets where Premium Lite is available.

“Last year, we expanded our Premium Lite pilot to more markets and heard feedback about wanting these additional features included in the service. We’re excited for today’s update and to continue testing and building products that best meet our users’ needs,” the YouTube team said today.

With background play, YouTube users on mobile can listen to a video in the background while they switch to another app, and it also works when the screen is locked. As for offline downloads, it allows users to download videos for offline viewing, and this also works on the YouTube website.

YouTube Premium Lite is priced at $7.99 per month in the US, and the cheaper plan is currently available in over 20 markets, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, India, South Korea, France, Germany, the UK, Italy, and Spain. You can find the full list of countries on this page. At $13.99/month, YouTube Premium offers an ad-free experience on all videos, YouTube Music Premium, plus additional features such as an enhanced 1080p quality on videos.