This week’s edition of Five on Friday features subscription services adding more features, axing products that aren’t working and appeasing users. YouTube Premium is adding five new features including video queues on mobile devices and more support for Apple SharePlay, and Ubisoft is now available on Xbox devices but not everyone is happy about it. Also this week, Spotify axes its Heardle game (Name That Tune meets Wordle), Twitter allows paid users to use up to 10,000 characters, and Instagram lets users add up to five links in their bio, a small change but one that will appease millions of users who have developed workarounds.

YouTube Premium is getting five new features

YouTube Premium has helped users enjoy content offline and without ads since 2014. Fans are excited about five new features, helping YouTube Premium’s 80 million subscribers and trial users get more out of their subscriptions. Currently, YouTube Premium features include ad-free viewing, offline viewing, background play, and uninterrupted music experiences.

In a blog post, YouTube shared they would allow for video queues on phones or tablets. Right now, the queueing feature has been exclusive to those watching YouTube on a television. With the new rollout of the feature, mobile users can stack a video in a queue, and get away from the autoplay feature YouTube loves.

Also, YouTube has added more support for Apple SharePlay, making it easier to have friends and family to watch a video together on FaceTime, TechCrunch said. If the Apple SharePlay host has YouTube Premium, regardless of device, they can utilize this feature. Android users can use Meet Live Sharing, where Premium members can host Google Meet sessions.

“No matter where your friends and family are, you can experience the joy of YouTube together,” YouTube said.

Another new feature is the capability to switch between devices, allowing a user to load a video from their phone onto their television, and pick up where they left off, with no interruption to the video. Also YouTube Premium will offer Smart Downloads, allowing the service to start adding recommended videos to the users’ video library, ready for offline viewing. Imagine endless downloads of Cocomelon!

The last new feature is aimed at video quality, TubeFilter shared. This feature allows for an “enhanced bitrate version” of videos in 1080p HD for extra clarity. The new features will be available on iOS in the coming weeks, and new features will be tested on the web in the coming months.

Ubisoft+ Now on Xbox Devices

After much waiting, Ubisoft+ is finally available on Xbox devices with mixed reactions. Microsoft announced last Thursday that the gaming publisher would be offering its back catalog on Xbox devices. However, to take advantage of the new offering, Xbox users must subscribe to the Ubisoft+ Multi Access plan, which will give them access to the library of games, as well as 10% off in-game currency.

“Partnering with Xbox to launch Ubisoft+ Multi Access on Xbox consoles enhances our subscription offering to provide more value and choice to our players. Xbox console players now have access to our worlds through Ubisoft’s extensive game library,” Chris Early of Ubisoft said of the launch.

A membership to Ubisoft+ Multi Access plan costs $17.99 per month, which also grants access to stream games on Amazon Luna and Windows PC, Polygon reported. Along with existing titles, users will be able to access premium editions of upcoming releases.

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Some gamers were excited about the launch, and the potential to save money, but some users were not as excited, explaining that the service costs the same amount per year as three AAA titles. Historically, Ubisoft drops the price of their games after launch to make them more accessible to the public, but this would weaken the value of their service with that logic.

Ubisoft was quick to refute those claims, sharing that users who did subscribe to the Multi Access plan would get access to all downloadable content for games available. However, the service will have fewer titles available on the Xbox than it does on the PC, according to The Verge. This could make more users question the value of the service and skip it all together.

Spotify axes Heardle

Less than a year after purchasing the game, Spotify has announced they will sunset the game Heardle, a music trivia game that is a cross between Name that Tune and Wordle, on May 5. Users who visit Spotify  to play the game will now see a goodbye message.

Last year, Heardle saw much success after Wordle started to take off. The game is simple: users start listening to a short song clip and must guess what song it comes from. Last March, it reached an all-time high of 69 million monthly visitors, TechCrunch reported. However, Spotify is singing a different tune now. After the streaming service bought the game, its monthly users started to whittle down to the 41 million mark.

Some speculation surrounding the game being shut down include the game being stunted. At times, it would play several songs from the same artist, or they would only play what is popular on TikTok, Engadget shared. There will be no employee cuts or reorganization of Spotify after Heardle shuts down, as there was no designated team working on it.

The decision comes jut after Spotify shuttered their live programming, Spotify Live. These recent shifts suggest they are trying to reinvent their app to make it more like TikTok and making the Disovery feed look similar to the video sharing app. In addition, Spotify launched an AI DJ that would get smarter the more you use it. All recent shifts signal that Spotify wants to go back to what it’s good at: music and music discovery, TechCrunch said.

Spotify has almost always been good at music discovery and helping users find new music to listen to. According to Billboard, their recommendations make up almost half of all user streams. If an artist gets added onto weekly playlists like Release Radar, they will gain almost three times more streams from one listener per month.

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Twitter announces new features for Twitter Blue subscribers

Last week, Twitter announced some new changes for Twitter Blue subscribers. For just $8 a month (web) or $11 a month (iOS or Android), Twitter Blue subscribers can expand their tweets to as many as 10,000 characters. They can also use bold and italics formatting. While any Twitter user can view a 10,000-character tweet, only Twitter Blue subscribers have the ability to create them.

In the announcement, @TwitterWrite said that Twitter Blue subscribers can also enable subscriptions to monetize their work.

CNBC reports that Twitter is allowing users to subscribe to their favorite content creators to get exclusive, subscriber-only content. In a separate tweet, Twitter owner Elon Musk said that they will not receive any of the money created by this content for a year.

According to CNBC, Musk has a subscription for his own Twitter account. He charges subscribers $4-a-month for access to exclusive tweets.

Why would Twitter make these changes?

• To attract more subscribers to Twitter Blue to grow revenue
• To compete with other long(er) form platforms like Substack and Facebook
• To draw more creators by allowing them to enable subscriptions and monetize

Instagram now allows up to five bio links

Earlier this week, Meta revealed that Instagram users can now add up to five links in their Instagram bios. The previous limit was one, driving many users to use workarounds like Linktree. Social Media Today reports that the ability to add more than one link is one of Instagram’s most requested features. They also noted that Instagram has been testing this feature since 2021.

Meta made the announcement Tuesday via their @MetaNewsroom Twitter account, but there is no formal post in their online Meta Newsroom. We also noted that Meta has a gold “verified account” checkmark with the Meta logo to the right.

“Starting today, the update will make it easier for creators and other users to highlight their passions, bring awareness to causes they care about, promote brands they love, showcase their personal business, and more,” Instagram said.

To add more links to an Instagram profile, the user selects “Edit profile” and clicks on the “Links” line toward the bottom. Users can then add an external link to their website, blog or other site. They also have the option to click on “Add Facebook link” if they want to add a link to their Facebook profile. Those whose Instagram profiles are private will want to evaluate whether they want people to be able to see their public Facebook posts before they decide to link the two accounts.

In the past, Instagram has fought against the option to add more links because they want to keep users on their platform. However, tools like Linktree were easy enough (and free) to use that Instagram users found their own way to add links. Unlike Instagram’s less elegant solution, Linktree allows users to brand their account and easily add or edit links.

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