Overview
- YouTube announced on Thursday that it is launching three Premium podcast features, with on-the-go mode and Auto speed available now on Android and iOS support coming in the months ahead.
- On-the-go mode gives Premium users simplified listening controls for background playback, including skip forward and back and quick episode jumps to make mobile listening easier during commutes or exercise.
- Auto speed is an intelligent playback setting that raises or lowers listening speed during slower speech or information-dense segments so users can listen more efficiently without losing comprehension.
- YouTube extended its Ask Music AI recommendation tool to podcasts so Premium users can request suggestions by genre, mood, or shows they already like and receive personalized podcast picks.
- YouTube cites large internal usage figures to justify the push — over 1 billion monthly YouTube Podcasts viewers and more than 800 million podcast hours watched by Premium users in April 2026 — a move that positions the company to better compete with services such as Netflix, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.