5 Things You Didn't Know YouTube TV Could Do

YouTube TV has become a popular service among cord-cutters, as its user interface resembles what cable and satellite users are used to. The convenience of the platform can be easy to settle into, especially for those who have favorite channels and content that have carried over from traditional cable providers. And while settling into old viewing routines is pretty intuitive with YouTube TV, there's a lot that makes a YouTube TV subscription worth purchasing.

Access to live and local channels and unlimited DVR storage are a couple of features that most people know about. But there are a lot more available that make YouTube TV distinguishable from cable and satellite providers, as well as from other streaming services. There are several ways to customize the content experience, for example, as well as some features that ensure you don't inadvertently receive spoilers while watching sports games recorded to your DVR.

Additionally, big changes have come to YouTube TV recently, and they affect everything from subscription plans to content access, making YouTube TV more worthwhile than in the past. The full scope of what it offers means there's a lot that gets easily overlooked. But we're deeply familiar with the service, and have singled out some things you might not know YouTube TV can do. They can expand the way you use the service, and they may even be enough to move some non-subscribers over to the platform.

YouTube TV's live channel guide displays every channel in the lineup by default, which can quickly become cumbersome. In most cases, the lineup offers far more channels than anyone will actually watch. Scrolling past dozens of channels that you never intend to watch while trying to find the channels you do want to watch can be frustrating. Most subscribers accept it as part of the TV experience, but YouTube TV offers an easy fix.

With YouTube TV, subscribers are able to fully customize their live channel guide. You can reorder channels through a drag-and-drop process, by pinning favorites to the top of the guide, and by hiding channels that you have no intention of ever watching. The custom guide is accessible through your account settings menu, and it syncs across devices once configured. This means you can watch YouTube TV the same way on your tablet as you do on your smart TV.

This will likely be a standout find for those who tend to cycle through the same channels over and over again. But it is also a handy feature for those who simply want to explore more channels. Because it's so easy to reorder channels any time you like, the feature can be taken advantage of to arrange channels together that have things in common. Favorites can be placed at the top, while lesser-known channels that you want to get familiar with can be placed together beneath them.

Most YouTube TV subscribers are likely to know that it comes with unlimited cloud DVR space. Recording your favorite movies and TV shows to the DVR is one way to access on-demand video content, and it essentially gives you the ability to curate your own content library. But YouTube TV also comes with access to a lot of on-demand movies and TV shows that don't require recording to watch.

YouTube TV partners with major networks like Fox, CBS, Food Network, FX, Cartoon Network, and others to provide subscribers with immediate, free access to all kinds of content. Recent episodes of popular TV shows are often added to the library after they air, and movies are added and removed from the on-demand library from time to time. Tapping into on-demand content this way can come in handy if you forget to record something.

One catch to YouTube TV's on-demand content is that it's not organized into a dedicated library or browsing section. This makes it more difficult to explore than streaming services like Netflix or even Pluto TV, as YouTube TV's on-demand content needs to be accessed through individual channel pages, through recommended content on your Home page, or through your personal Library tab once you've saved some movies or TV episodes you want to watch to it.

YouTube TV introduced new streaming plans this year, creating a range of price points for subscribers of all budgets. But regardless of which plan you've decided on, there are going to be stretches of time when the service is costly or isn't being used very often. Travel, busy stretches at work, or periods of disinterest in the entertainment calendar can all lead to a month or two where a YouTube TV subscription doesn't fit into your life.

Many subscribers will simply keep paying for the service or cancel it entirely, not realizing there's a third option. YouTube TV allows subscribers to pause a subscription for up to six months at a time. No saved DVR content will be lost, and account settings will remain the same when your subscription commences again. No charges will be made during the pause period, and when your subscription starts back up, that day of the month becomes your new billing day moving forward.

One thing to note here is that you won't be able to record movies or TV shows to your DVR while your account is paused. If you're in a stretch where you simply don't want to watch much TV but will want to catch up later, pausing your subscription won't be the right way to go. But for those who would like to step away from YouTube TV for a period of time, putting a pause on your subscription will allow you to come right back to it when you're ready.

If access to sports games is what brought you to YouTube TV, you may know well the exact issue this next feature resolves. Anyone who has recorded a game because they weren't able to watch it live knows the effort it can take to avoid learning the game's result before having a chance to watch it. Staying off social media can help to prevent spoilers, as can steering clear of sports conversations with friends for a few days.

But that still leaves the possibility of the score popping up while watching TV. YouTube TV, however, has a built-in feature that hides sports scores, keeping the results of your recorded games out of sight while you watch other shows and movies. The setting can be applied to teams, to entire sports, or to individual leagues. It syncs across devices, so you won't accidentally bump into scores when moving from one device to another.

Scores can still turn up in the tickers of sports networks, as the feature isn't entirely flawless. YouTube TV is unable to blur or censor those scores, but it will remove final scores and live previews from your YouTube TV interface, which includes your Home tab, Library, and team pages. It can be an incredibly helpful feature that many sports fans using the service may not know about.

Recently released for YouTube TV is a powerful multiview feature, and while it offers a customizable picture-in-picture experience to subscribers, we feel it could be better. Many users may not know, however, that they can create a similar experience — and perhaps an even better one — by tapping into YouTube TV's ability to play on multiple devices at a time. YouTube TV's base plan supports up to three simultaneous streams, meaning three different devices can all play at the same time.

There are a lot of ways to put this perk to use, one of which can be through creating an ultimate viewing setup. With access to three streams at any given time, subscribers can set up multiple TVs in one room for a large-screen, picture-in-picture-esque experience. Also in play is something much simpler, which is to use your smart TV or home theater setup as your main viewing screen while keeping a phone or tablet close by to check in on other content you'd like to watch.

While this setup is likely to appeal mostly to sports fans who want to keep track of games that are taking place at the same time, the ability to watch YouTube TV across three devices can also be taken advantage of by families. With different age groups under one roof also come different viewing tastes. Three people can stream three different things at a time with YouTube TV's standard subscription plan, or an upgrade to the 4K Plus plan comes with access to unlimited simultaneous streams.