YouTube Appears to Be Considering Moving Playback Speed Control to Paid Features
According to Reddit users, YouTube has started limiting access to the video playback speed adjustment feature. For some viewers, this option is blocked and is only offered with a YouTube Premium subscription.
The experiment appears to be selective: the feature works for some users but not for others, and sometimes it temporarily returns. There has been no official confirmation or comment from Google yet.
This is not the first time the platform has tested monetizing basic features. If the experiment is deemed successful, playback speed control could become a paid perk, which is likely to cause dissatisfaction among the audience.