YouTube To Introduce 1080p Downloads For Offline Viewing

If you regularly watch videos on YouTube and like to build up a little cache in the event of having no internet access, then you might be one of the many people who choose to utilise the option on mobile platforms to download videos to watch later. There is, however, something of a catch in regards to quality.

To date, the maximum quality in which YouTube has allowed downloads is at 720p resolution. Not bad by any means, but then again, not exactly the ‘modern standard’ either.

Well, in a report via thenextweb, there may be some positive news on the horizon as YouTube is rolling out a new option to download videos at 1080p resolution.

YouTube Is Increasing Download Video Resolutions to 1080p

Now, just in case you were entirely unaware that this was an option at all, we should clarify certain points. For example, this option has only ever been made available via the mobile app. In other words, you won’t see the option (quite understandably) to download videos from a web browser.

There is, however, apparently going to be a catch to this new higher-quality of download resolution possible. Namely, that it may only be available to YouTube ‘Premium’ members. No subscription? You’re stuck with 720p at best then I’m afraid!

What Do We Think?

While the difference between 720p and 1080p isn’t probably going to be that substantial to the vast majority of you, it is, if nothing else, another tier that YouTube can add to their ‘Premium’ package with very little effort required on their part.

Will it be enough on its own to tempt more people into taking the ad-free service? Probably not. Then again, some people do value higher quality videos and might just see this as the tipping point to make them go for it!

What do you think? Is this a good idea by YouTube? Are you a premium subscriber on the platform? – Let us know in the comments!