Until AV2 arrives, the YouTube app already lets you decide how much data it uses. On Android: Tap your profile picture, then Settings. Choose Video quality preferences. Set mobile networks and Wi-Fi separately: Auto; Higher picture quality, which uses more data; Data saver, with lower picture quality but faster start; or Advanced, to pick a resolution yourself. To change a single video only, open Settings in the player and tap Quality. Photo: Reels of optical fibre cable on a pavement in Bad Waldsee, Germany, not in Kuwait. By Asurnipal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source: Alliance for Open Media, 22 October 2026 release on AV2 adoption; YouTube Help: Change the quality of your video.

YouTube brings AV2 to the web in early 2027: sharper video for less data

The new open codec squeezes about 30% more than AV1. Browsers get it first; phones and TVs have no date yet, and one app setting already trims your usage today.

28 October 2026 Tech 2 min read

The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) said on 22 October 2026 that YouTube will start streaming in the AV2 codec on its web player “as soon as early 2027”. A codec is how a video is compressed before it reaches your screen: the smarter the compression, the less data the same picture needs.

What changes

AOMedia puts AV2’s compression gain at roughly 30% over AV1, the codec YouTube leans on today. According to Des Keane, YouTube’s engineering director, more than 90% of YouTube’s catalogue, weighted by watch time, was available in AV1 as of 19 March 2026.

That 30% is not a promise that every clip will cost a third less data. Savings depend on the video and the quality you pick, and a platform can spend the efficiency on a sharper picture instead of a smaller file. Either way the direction is the same: better quality at the same size, or the same quality at a smaller one.

AV2 is royalty-free. Amazon, Apple, Google, Intel, Netflix, Samsung and Tencent were among the companies behind it, and the specification was published in June 2026. AOMedia says it was also built for multi-view video, video calls, higher frame rates and better HDR.

Browsers first

Google has demonstrated AV2 playback in Chrome. There is no date for YouTube’s phone apps or for smart TVs, and most current devices have no hardware decoder for the format, so early playback will run on the main processor, which is harder work for older machines.

What you can do now

Until AV2 arrives, the YouTube app already lets you decide how much data it uses. On Android:

Tap your profile picture, then Settings.
Choose Video quality preferences.
Set mobile networks and Wi-Fi separately: Auto; Higher picture quality, which uses more data; Data saver, with lower picture quality but faster start; or Advanced, to pick a resolution yourself.

To change a single video only, open Settings in the player and tap Quality.

Photo: Reels of optical fibre cable on a pavement in Bad Waldsee, Germany, not in Kuwait. By Asurnipal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: Alliance for Open Media, 22 October 2026 release on AV2 adoption; YouTube Help: Change the quality of your video.