YouTube for Android TV now receiving ‘stable volume’ feature

Damien Wilde | Jun 24 2024 - 8:39 am PT

After being available on mobile for some time, YouTube’s “stable volume” feature is now expanding to Android TV and Google TV devices.

Stable volume is a feature designed to improve your listening experience with a wide array of YouTube content. In simple terms, it works by automatically adjusting the volume of videos you watch. This means you shouldn’t need to reach for your remote to turn the volume down for loud videos or turn it up when someone is speaking too quietly in a video. Google’s official support pages states that it helps “reduce jarring differences in volume.”

Stable volume does this by continuously balancing the volume range between quiet and loud parts of a YouTube video. In theory, this should create a more consistent listening experience no matter the content. You may have noticed that not all audio on YouTube is mixed evenly, so the “Stable volume” function should help improve your viewing experience.

We’ve spotted the stable volume toggle on various Google TV and Android TV devices running the latest YouTube v4.40.303 release. You should see the new toggle if you tap the gear icon when a video is playing. Stable volume is turned on by default, but you can easily disable it in the app settings if you prefer more control over the volume or find it alters the intended audio experience of certain videos.

This effect might not be useful in all situations, such as when listening to music or using a detailed audio mix. Due to the lack of dedicated YouTube Music app for Android TV, the toggle is still present when playing music on YouTube. However, stable volume is a neat tool for casual listening on YouTube, particularly for podcasts or videos where consistent sound is not always guaranteed.