YouTube Allows Premium Users To Experiment With A Handy Pinch-To-Zoom Feature

If you have ever wished you could zoom into a YouTube video to see something closer up, you may be in luck. A new pinch-to-zoom feature has been made available to YouTube Premium members and works in landscape mode too.

The primary benefits of YouTube Premium are being able to download videos for offline viewing, background playback and a complimentary subscription to YouTube Music. If you have YouTube Premium, you are also probably used to getting early access to new features. While the new toys may not be completely ready and a bit buggy, you can still experience and test out the latest and greatest YouTube has to offer before anyone else. Now, YouTube is offering Premium members an opportunity to zoom into your favorite videos to get a closer look at what is going on.

The experimental feature, aptly called Pinch to Zoom, will allow Premium users to use their fingers to zoom into the background of their favorite YouTuber and finally see what that little object on their bookshelf behind them is. While zoomed in, you will also be able to pan left or right in the video by sliding a finger around. In the image above, you can see a zoomed in image of the DJI Mini 3 Pro from our YouTube review.

Premium members can access the new feature in the YouTube app on Android by tapping on your profile photo and then hit "Your Premium benefits". Once there, you will tap on "Try new features" page and turn on YouTube's pinch to zoom. Be aware that it could a little while for the new feature to be made available to you after opting in.

The Pinch to Zoom feature is being made available to test through September 1, 2022. This should be plenty of time to try things out, see all those mysterious things in the background that have been annoying you to know what they are, and give feedback to YouTube on your experience. It is very likely everyone will see the new feature made available sometime in the future, but there is no known time frame as to when that may be. Another example of the pinch to zoom feature can be seen below. The top image is a normal view, while the image below it shows a zoomed in image where the text for "Interfaces" a bit more readable.

If you are not already a YouTube Premium member, and want the opportunity to pinch to zoom, be sure to opt into the service now to do so. There are usually opportunities to try Premium out for free for a limited amount of time, but if you don't have those available the service runs $11.99 a month.

Let us know in the comments what you think of the new feature if you are a Premium member and get to try it.

Top Image Credit: Google/YouTube