YouTube will now let you pay to QA test new features

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube has changed the way it tests new features: it’s now allowing its Premium subscribers access to experimental products in the development pipeline, according to XDA-Developers. Previously, those features were tested by Google users picked at random to beta test.

Currently, the new features available for Premium subscribers to test include watching videos with sound and seeking on your YouTube homepage on iOS; voice searching for YouTube videos on-site (only on Chrome); and filtering by topic in additional languages. The language at the top of YouTube’s experimental features page also says that Premium members can only access these features for a limited time.

YouTube Premium costs $11.99 a month, and it also gives you ad-free...