Now both iOS and Android devices can stream YouTube videos at 60fps, the Google-owned video-streaming service announced the feature on Tuesday. The announcement makes YouTube’s mobile app at par with PCs, Apple TV, PS3 and PS4. Android and iOS users can now head straight for the app and start watching 60 fps videos right away without the need to update, as the support has been reportedly activated via a change on the server.
YouTube announced its plans to add support for 60 fps videos back in June last year. At first, only a handful of gaming trailers were available at 60fps, but by fall the feature began rolling out on a larger scale. Meanwhile in May, YouTube added support for 60fps for live streams as well, locking horns against rival Twitch. Prior to that, live streams on YouTube were only available at 30fps.
To start watching videos with support for 60fps playback, users need to make sure they have the official YouTube app, as the feature is not available while using YouTube on a mobile browser or third party apps. Users just need to make sure that they change the video quality to 720p@60fps or 1080p@60fps.
The announcement was made via a short but sweet post by YouTube Creators on Google Plus, which said “HFR FTW! High frame rate playback is available on the YouTube app for both Android and iOS,”. It was accompanied by a link to ‘Far Cry 4: Valley of Yetis’ PS4 walkthrough.
YouTube also announced its plans to launch a new gaming focused site, to take on rival Twitch, which already offers several streaming options for mobile users.
“We know high frame rates are especially important for gaming streams, so we’ve worked with Elgato and XSplit on new versions of Elgato Game Capture, XSplit Broadcaster, and XSplit Gamecaster that support 60 fps live streaming to YouTube,” Product Manager Alan Joyce said announcing the HFR update on YouTube in May.
