When you open the YouTube app, you don't usually expect to be greeted by a video already playing. However, more and more users are reporting that this has started happening to them. While many thought it might be a bug, it appears that it may actually be a feature YouTube is testing.
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YouTube has a feature that automatically plays videos. If you don't want videos to play automatically, there's a setting that lets you turn this feature on or off. Despite having the feature turned off, some users are claiming to see videos playing automatically as soon as they open the app (h/t: Tech-Issues Today).
According to one Reddit user: “I opened the YouTube app on my Samsung today and immediately a video started playing. I checked that autoplay was turned off and restarted the app, but that didn’t fix the problem.” Another user responded by saying, “This is affecting my algorithm,” referring to the algorithm the platform uses to recommend videos to watch.
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While this may seem like a YouTube bug with the autoplay, it may actually be a new feature being tested. A user who claims to have contacted Support says a representative confirmed that it is an experimental feature.
Regardless of whether this is an experiment or not, most opinions regarding this feature seem to be negative. Fortunately, it seems that some users have managed to find a solution. One of these solutions is to uninstall the latest YouTube updates. Another trick that seems to work for some is clearing the app's data and cache .
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Update: A Google spokesperson confirmed to Android Authority that the reported issue is indeed an ongoing experiment, aimed at improving content discovery.
Source: androidauthority
