YouTube Testing Queue System for iOS and Android Apps

YouTube is currently testing its queue system on its iOS and Android apps.

The feature, which has been available on the web for years, allows users to add videos to a stack that acts as a temporary playlist. This feature is currently being rolled out to YouTube Premium users who opt-in to the test.

To access the feature, users can tap on the "Play last in queue" button in the three vertical dot menu that appears on video thumbnails. This will add the video to the bottom of the queue or create a new queue if the user is not currently watching a video.

Once the current video ends, the app will start playing the next video in the queue. Users can also rearrange the videos in the queue or remove them. If the user closes the player, either by fully quitting the app or tapping the "x" button in the bottom bar, the queue will be deleted (though the app may warn the user before this happens).

To enable the feature, users can tap on their profile picture in the top right corner, go to Settings > Try new features, and then scroll to "Queue" and tap the "Try it out" button. The test is available until January 28th.

While this test is not necessarily an indication that non-paying users will be able to queue up videos in the future, it does suggest that YouTube may be considering adding the feature to its mobile apps. The YouTube Music app already has a queueing system, and the addition of this feature to the main YouTube app could signal a shift towards more built-in apps getting tabbed interfaces.