So, I’ve found a bug of sorts in the YouTube app for Android. This issue occurs when you’re watching a high quality video, and then minimize it to keep using the app while the video is running in the background. YouTube app actually reverts to 60Hz when you do that.
I’ve tested this on the OnePlus 8, which has a 90Hz display. I’ve asked a friend of mine to do the same on his Galaxy S20, and he had the same issue. If you run a fullHD+ (or something with even higher resolution), the issue will occur.
YouTube app reverts to 60Hz when you minimize a fullHD+ video, or something with even higher resolution
YouTube app does support high refresh rate displays, and it works great. When you run a high-resolution video of fullHD+ (or higher), and want to continue using the app while it’s running in the background, the scrolling will become choppy, as it will revert back to 60Hz.
Interestingly enough, if you fire up an HD video, or something with an even lower resolution, this will not happen. I do believe this is a bug, and not something Google intentionally did with the app.
The Snapdragon 865 inside the OnePlus 8 should be able to run all of this without an issue. It should not have a problem running a really small window at the bottom of the display at 90Hz+, while also providing the same refresh rate on the rest of the display.
As I mentioned, I’ve only tested this on two devices, so I’m not sure if it’s the same issue with others, but chances are it is. The same problem occurs on both 90Hz and 120Hz panels that I’ve tested this on.
I’m not sure if the same issue occurs on high refresh rate displays on iOS
I don’t know if the same problem occurs on iOS. Apple did not release a single iPhone with a high-resolution display yet, so it can’t happen on iPhones, but it can on iPads. I don’t own an iPad, let alone one with a high refresh display, so I can’t really say anything about that.
This is not a big problem, not even close to it. It’s actually a really small issue that most people won’t have a problem with, and many of them may not even notice it.
This has started happening rather recently, at least for me. I initially thought it’s just a cache thing or something of the sort, so I tried clearing everything, but that didn’t help, so I decided to dive in deeper and see what causes it.
This should be a fairly easy fix for Google, to be quite honest. Chrome had a similar issue a while back, actually. The app tended to revert back to 60Hz for no apparent reason, and you need to kill the app, and run it again in order to regain a high refresh rate.
Google took care of the Chrome issue rather fast, so I do hope that the company will do the same with YouTube.