San Francisco, Jul 18 (IANS): Google-owned YouTube has announced that it is testing a new feature that allows users to easily watch videos at 2x speed.

"Long press anywhere on the player while watching a video to automatically bump the playback speed to 2x," the company said on its experiments page.

Although the feature is in testing, Premium members can access this feature until August 13.

This feature will be helpful as currently, users have to follow a few steps to move up the playback speed on the platform which might be frustrating for some people. The company also mentioned another feature it is testing that provides bigger previews to users while seeking.

"We've enlarged the preview thumbnail that you see when moving forward or back in a video."

This feature will be helpful as it will make it easier for users to find the exact moment in the video that they want to watch.

Premium members can access this functionality until August 13.

Earlier, the company had announced that it was testing a new lock screen feature, which will allow users to disable touch input while watching a video.

It will help prevent accidental taps causing pause, skip or disruption of the video.

When initially announced, this lock screen feature was accessible to Premium users until July 30, however now, the company has extended it to August 5.

Last month, the video-sharing platform had said that it was testing a three-strikes policy for people using ad blockers.

"We're running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium. Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers," a YouTube spokesperson had said.

The company also provided details on how the policy works, while noting that "ad blockers violate YouTube's Terms of Service".