Ask HN: Is YouTube using a dark pattern to prevent background playlist play?

15 points

7 years ago

I listen to youtube playlists in the background fairly regularly and I've noticed some interesting changes in the last couple of weeks. Initially it began with an auto pause, and a popup saying video paused, click to continue.

More recently playlists have been looping the same song at seemingly random, looking to support forumss gives hundreds of comments reporting similar behaviour. (https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/16267152?hl=en)

Is youtube trying to drive adoption of youtube red by intentionally reducing the user experience for non premium users?

4 comments