YouTube Premium Adds Auto Speed Feature and On-the-go Mode for Podcasts

YouTube is getting serious about becoming one of the best platforms for listening to podcasts. The company said today that podcasts now have more than 1 billion monthly active viewers, and starting today, YouTube Premium subscribers are getting access to three new features to improve the podcast listening experience.

“Today, we’re introducing new updates that elevate the overall YouTube Premium experience that we know podcast fans will especially love,” the YouTube team said today. According to the company, Premium users already are “podcast super users,” with its internal data showing that they have watched over 800 million hours of podcasts in April 2026.

The first new podcast feature coming to YouTube Premium users today is On-the-go mode, which offers an optimized mobile UI with easier access to playback controls. On-the-go mode is coming first to Android today, and it will be coming to iOS in a couple of months.

If YouTube Premium users already have access to the new ‘Jump ahead’ feature and faster playback speeds, the new Auto speed feature promises to automatically adjust playback speed based on dialogue activity. Again, Auto speed is coming first to Android, and iOS users will have to wait.

Lastly, the conversational ‘Ask Music’ experience in the YouTube Music app is now coming to the main YouTube app, where it can provide podcast recommendations. “Now you can also ask for podcast recommendations based on genres, your current mood, or shows you already love, and let Ask Music do the heavy lifting,” the YouTube team explained.

Overall, I still think YouTube’s podcast strategy lacks some coherence. I doubt many people are going to subscribe to YouTube Premium to listen to podcasts, and the standalone YouTube Music app is probably a better fit for podcast fans.

YouTube may have a lot of video podcasts, but it’s still missing a lot of audio-based ones. The YouTube Music app, however, lets you add any podcast you like using its RSS feed. It also has an automated “New episodes” playlist for the podcasts you’re subscribed to, and you can also easily save episodes to an “Episodes for later” list. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the YouTube Music app is getting these new On-the-go mode and Auto speed features, at least for now.