[Feature Request] Remember YouTube playback speed and quality settings on iOS

Brave Feature Requests iOS Requests
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Summary

I’d like Brave on iOS to remember and persist YouTube playback speed and video quality settings across videos and sessions.

Currently, every time I open a new YouTube video in Brave on iOS, the playback speed resets to 1× and the quality reverts to Auto. This means I have to manually re-select my preferred speed (e.g., 1.5× or 2×) and quality (e.g., 720p or 1080p) for every single video.

Requested behavior

Primary request — Playback speed persistence

  • When I set a playback speed (e.g., 1.5× or 2×), that setting should be remembered and applied to subsequent YouTube videos automatically.

    • The speed should not reset after pausing/resuming, navigating to a new video, or reopening the browser.

  • Secondary request — Video quality persistence

  • When I manually select a video quality (e.g., 720p, 1080p), that preference should be remembered for future videos.

    • Ideally, separate defaults could be set for Wi-Fi vs. mobile data (similar to YouTube app behavior).

  • Why this matters

  • Many users watch YouTube at increased speed (1.5×–2×) for educational content, podcasts, and long-form videos. Having to reset speed on every video is a major friction point.

    • On older devices or slower connections, Auto quality often selects a resolution that’s too high or too low. Being able to lock in a preferred quality saves time and battery.

  • Prior community discussion

    This has been requested multiple times over the years, indicating sustained user demand:

  • Playlist keeps resetting speed on play (2021) — speed resets to 1× on every video/pause

  • Device info

  • iPhone / iPad

    • iOS / iPadOS (latest)
      • Brave iOS (latest stable)

Note on existing “Highest Quality Playback” setting

Brave iOS already has a “Highest Quality Playback” option (On / Allow over Wi-Fi / Off) in Settings → Media. However, this setting is insufficient for the needs described above:

  1. It has no effect on playback speed — it only controls quality, not speed persistence.
    1. It’s too coarse for quality control — it only toggles between “highest available” or not. It does not allow setting a specific quality cap (e.g., 720p or 1080p). Even on Wi-Fi, if the connection is slow, Auto may select a resolution too high for smooth playback, causing buffering and stalling.
      1. It doesn’t always work — past reports indicate that even with this setting turned Off, Brave still selects the highest available quality (see prior discussion #582981 above).
    3. What’s needed is a more granular control: the ability to set a maximum quality limit (not just “highest or not”), ideally with separate limits for Wi-Fi and mobile data, regardless of actual connection speed.