YouTube routinely experiments with new features on its Premium tier, and its latest test involves a sleep timer that pauses the video after, well, a set period of time. It’s not an earth-shattering feature, but it’s still bound to be handy for people who like to go to sleep with long podcasts or white noise playing in the background.
YouTube Premium users can enable this timer from this page on the desktop, or through the “Settings > Try experimental new features” option on mobile.
The Sleep Timer option will then show up in the Settings menu on the video player. You can set the timer to pause the video after 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes or till the video ends.
Once YouTube pauses playback, you will see a pop-up asking you to extend the timer in case you want to.
YouTube has lagged the competition a bit in adding this feature. Spotify has had a sleep timer for a while, and TikTok started testing sleep nudges based on a preset bedtime last year.
YouTube’s experimental feature page says the sleep timer feature will be available until September 2, but hopefully the streaming platform will make it permanent and extend it to free users.
YouTube’s previous experiments include an AI assistant that answers questions about videos and a lock screen feature to avoid accidental taps.