Sleep timers are a fairly standard feature of podcast and music-streaming apps, allowing users to specify when playback stops. This is useful for bedtime, as the name suggests—it sees that the playback stops after you have fallen asleep. YouTube has long been missing of this feature.
However, the YouTube Android app is said to be working on a sleep timer feature, much similar to the one already available in the YouTube Music app. The revelation of this feature occurred when an APK teardown took place on one of the beta releases of the YouTube app for Android.
In the screenshot below also, this is quite evident:
YouTube sleep timer for Android
It would let the user set up duration for how long a video should play before it stops on its own, according to an Android Authority report in collaboration with tipster AssembleDebug. Users may be able to set hours and minutes until the video playback stops. It would also work its way into a notification. One possible dialog option reads, “You can reset the timer or click done to keep watching.”
Is this officially announced by YouTube?
YouTube Sleep Timer: Is this officially announced by YouTube?
There is no word on the YouTube Sleep Timer feature for its Android app from YouTube, but since it was found by an APK teardown, these features might make it in for a future update.
Considering there are already plenty of videos and music dedicated to falling asleep on YouTube, this type of feature does indeed feel a bit delayed. As for when this might actually come to be, we are not aware yet.
Expected advantage for the user
A sleep timer on YouTube would mean users who mostly view on Android and watch their videos during sleep can do so. This feature will provide a better user experience on the platform, but it will also somewhat bring the YouTube app at par with other media apps that offer the same functionality.
Comparison with YouTube Music app
Comparison with YouTube Music app
It now remains to be seen if the sleep timer feature on YouTube will work similarly to the YouTube Music app. On the YouTube Music app, the sleep timer is displayed in the Now Playing menu at the bottom and stops playback automatically after the stipulated time.
We also wish that the sleep timer in the YouTube app supports an “end of video” option like its cousin YouTube Music does with its “end of song” setting, which would really shut off playback when it hits the end of a video. However, we have no indication this option is coming anytime soon.
Sleep timer on iOS
Sleep timer on iOS
While that’s not that much of an issue on iOS, thanks to the fact that you can set a system-wide timer which ends any kind of playback when it hits zero. Meanwhile the similar functionality on YouTube for Android phone owners has been left to third-party apps and workarounds for far too long.
Conclusion
Sleep timers turn off media apps after a certain period of time elapses, with the option commonly being used to make sure songs or videos do not continue playing too long after someone has fallen asleep. It’s especially common in music apps, but the feature actually has its roots in video: Sleep timers are very common on TV sets.
Tell us in the comment section below: Would you use the sleep timer on YouTube? Is it a worthy feature? Have you used the sleep timer in another app? How was your experience—please share.
