Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ Get HDR Playback Support in YouTube App

If you are holding on to a Samsung Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ then you’ll be glad to know that the latest YouTube app update to version 12.34.55 enables HDR playback.

After installing the update on your S8 or S8+ you’ll notice a new option in YouTube which allows you to play back at 1440p60 HDR. However, be warned – streaming is now perfectly smooth at this point, but this will hopefully be fixed with future updates.

If you too are the owner of one of Samsung’s flagships, you can go ahead and taste the feature yourself. Just remember that you need to set the phone’s resolution to the highest 1440p option. Also, you’ll need to update your YouTube app.

In related news, a few days ago Netflix quietly rolled out HDR video streaming for the newly unveiled Galaxy Note 8. It seems that YouTube followed a similar route, as it did not choose to make a big fuss about enabling HDR playback on Samsung’s older flagships.

In case you are unaware, HRD offers better contrast ratios and color accuracy when video streaming. Samsung started supporting HDR content last year with the Note 7, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ and Note 8+ all being HDR-friendly devices.