How to test YouTube Music's AI music hosts: A new way to re-discover your favorite songs

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YouTube Music has new AI hosts, but not everyone can test out this new feature.

YouTube Labs page
(Image credit: Android Central)

Companies continue finding ways to integrate AI into their products, and YouTube Music is the latest to receive the AI treatment. Thanks to YouTube Labs, users can try out new features before Google makes them more widely available to the general public, and the first is a new AI-powered music DJ/host.

It's called "Beyond the Beat," and it functions as a radio show featuring two AI hosts who converse with each other before and after songs. After every few songs, the hosts will provide insight into a track that just played or an upcoming song, offering backstories, trivia, history, and more. The offering is not too unlike Spotify's AI DJ.

Here's how you can test YouTube Music's new AI hosts and provide feedback on the experience before it rolls out more widely.

How to sign up for YouTube Labs

Before you can try the new AI host, you need to be subscribed to YouTube Music or YouTube Premium. If you're already subscribed, you can sign up by using the link: www.youtube.com/new, or by following the steps below on your smartphone:

1. Open the YouTube app and tap your profile icon in the bottom right corner.

2. Tap the settings icon in the top right corner.

3. Select "Try experimental new features."

4. Scroll down and tap the Join now button under YouTube Labs.

(Image credit: Android Central)

How to use (and snooze) YouTube Music's AI hosts

Once you've joined the experiment, you don't have to do anything else to enable the AI music hosts. Navigate to YouTube Music to begin listening to a radio or auto-generated mix, and the hosts will chime in periodically between tracks.

You can also pause the hosts if you want to listen to music uninterrupted. You will notice a new button next to the like and dislike options. This button includes a sparkle icon and lets you snooze the AI hosts, providing two options:

  • Snooze for 1 hour
  • Snooze for a day

(Image credit: Android Central)

Note that you cannot turn off Beyond the Beat. You can only snooze the experience or leave the experiment by returning to the YouTube Labs page in the previous section.

Still a work in progress

As we know by now, AI isn't perfect, and it's bound to make an error every now and then. Google makes note of this in the snooze menu, stating that "AI commentary can make mistakes."

Fortunately, Google encourages testers to provide feedback, which may help shape the future of the feature if/when it rolls out more widely. In order to do so, navigate back to the YouTube Labs page in the first section. Here, you'll find a Feedback button, which will take you to a form you can fill out regarding your experience.

Note that not everyone can partake in the experiment. According to Google, a "limited number of US-based participants can test early prototypes and experiments and influence the future of YouTube."

Derrek Lee
Derrek Lee
Managing Editor

Derrek is the managing editor of Android Central, helping to guide the site's editorial content and direction to reach and resonate with readers, old and new, who are just as passionate about tech as we are. He's been obsessed with mobile technology since he was 12, when he discovered the Nokia N90, and his love of flip phones and new form factors continues to this day. As a fitness enthusiast, he has always been curious about the intersection of tech and fitness. When he's not working, he's probably working out.

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