YouTube is Testing New Stable Volume Feature on Mobile

Google has quietly started testing a new “Stable Volume” feature on YouTube that, as its names suggest, aims to make the sound level of videos on the platform more stable. The feature appears to be only available for select users of the YouTube mobile app, and it was first shared by a Reddit user last week

Google has since confirmed to TechCrunch that it has started testing this new Stable Volume feature with YouTube users globally. “We are currently testing a new YouTube listening control feature that enables a more consistent sound for users when watching videos,” a YouTube spokesperson told TechCrunch. “The experiment is global and across mobile devices,” they added.

To check if you have access to the new Stable Volume feature, you’ll need to press the cog button in the top right corner of the app. It should appear below other settings to change video quality or turn on Ambient mode. Unfortunately, there’s no way to opt in to test it right now.

YouTube isn’t the first platform to experiment with technology to even out the volume of videos. Some smart TVs and media players already offer a similar feature at a system level. As an example, the “Reduce loud sound” options on tvOS can deliver softer sound effects and music without messing with all the details of the original sound level.

If you’re a YouTube Premium subscriber, you can currently test a couple of other new features on YouTube. There’s a new Lock Screen option to avoid accidental taps when watching a video in full-screen mode, and Google is also testing the ability to long press anywhere on the player to automatically bump the playback speed of a video to 2x.