YouTube Premium is sort of good – however I hope it will get these 5 upgrades in 2026
If you’re a long-time TechRadar reader then you’ll know that I’ve previously written about how great YouTube Premium is. It’s probably the last digital subscription I’d give up, and that includes the likes of Netflix and my Google cloud storage – that’s how much value I get from my £12.99 a month ($13.99 in the US, and AU$16.99 in Australia).
I won’t go into detail again about everything that I love about YouTube Premium, but never having to sit through a single ad transforms the viewing experience – sign up for a free trial or test the service for a month and you’ll see what I mean. Once you go back to the ad-supported tier, it’s incredibly jarring.
However, that doesn’t mean YouTube Premium is perfect – not yet – and I do have some feature requests that would make the service even more appealing, and perhaps attract another swath of subscribers. Just in case there’s anyone from the YouTube team reading, here’s what else I’d like to see.
1. A proper incognito mode
Switching to Incognito mode at the browser level is a really useful way to watch videos without leaving a trace on your viewing history or recommendations, but if you’re a YouTube Premium subscriber you’ll notice one problem: the ads come back. This is even true for the incognito mode that comes built in as an option in the Android and iOS apps.
If I’m paying for YouTube Premium, I don’t want to see ads, not even in incognito mode – this is a feature that should be available on the desktop and on mobile for subscribers. That way I can listen to chilled out, lo-fi beats in the background all day while I’m working, and not then get a huge number of similar videos appear in my recommendations.
2. More detailed viewing stats
I’m a big fan of stats in all forms, and the YouTube Recap that was introduced for the first time this year is certainly an interesting look back on your last 12 months of viewing on the platform: it’s available to everyone, Premium subscribers or otherwise, and it gives you a quick and simple breakdown of the channels and types of videos you watched the most.
There’s a lot more that I’d like to see though: what times of day do I tend to watch most videos? What’s the average point in videos that I tend to stop watching? How many videos have I viewed at 1.5x speed this year? Better analytics on the videos themselves would be welcome too – when I last watched a video, for example, and how many times I’ve seen it.
3. Turn YouTube into Plex
Maybe I’m just being greedy at this point, but I’d like to see YouTube Premium subscribers get the ability to add their own videos and stream them to all their devices over the web – so YouTube would work in a similar way to something like Plex or Jellyfin. This ability to import local files is already available in music services such as Spotify and YouTube Music.
You can already do this to some extent on YouTube – the upload feature is right there on every device – but more Plex-style features would be handy, like being able to categorize and sort through videos more easily, and better content tagging (the same sort of options you get whenever you purchase movies and shows digitally through YouTube, in fact).
4. Easier clipping and sharing tools
People love to share clips online, and tools like Netflix Moments make this easier than ever, so how about improved clipping and sharing tools for YouTube Premium subscribers? I’d love to be able to snip out a section of a video – podcast, movie, show, or any other type – and then quickly share it through YouTube or through a connected social media account.
How about the ability to highlight my favorite part of a particular movie or show, turn it into a YouTube Short, and then add a little bit of commentary on top? Users are already doing this all across YouTube and social media of course. But as it stands, a variety of third-party tools and a significant amount of time and effort are required for the job.
5. Extra video customizations
The wealth of YouTube-related browser extensions you can find online is testament to how much users want to play around with the look and the functionality of YouTube, and this is another area where I think there’s room for improvement when it comes to the default experience – YouTube should be integrating a lot more of these customizations itself.
You can use browser extensions to see more detailed stats on video quality, to tweak video looping behavior, and to change the other elements you see around videos (including recommendations), for example. Background dimming, blue light filters, in-line transcripts, more keyboard shortcuts, and so on – there’s a lot of potential here.
What other features would you like to see added to YouTube Premium? Let us know in the comments below.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.