720p Is Not HD Enough For YouTube; Videos With 1080p And Above Are Being Marked As HD

YouTube -- a freemium video streaming platform from Google, is one of the most used platforms across the globe. It has music, videos, to full-length movies with up to 8K resolution. YouTube used to classify 720p videos as HD; however, with the latest update, only videos with 1080p or above will be considered HD videos.

Is 720p Isn't HD Enough For YouTube?

720p or 1280 x 720p is still considered as HD by television and smartphone makers. In fact, the newly announced iPhone SE and the iPhone 11 do come with a display with a resolution slightly higher than 720p. And most of the 32-inch television sold in the country offer 720p resolution. In fact, some of the 720p displays are being considered as HD Ready panels.

In one way, 720p can be considered as HD or high-definition. Then, 1920 x 1080p has to be considered as FHD or full high-definition and 2560 x 1440p has to be considered as QHD or quad high-definition. However, YouTube considers both 1080p and 1440p as just HD, whereas 2160p and 4320p are being considered as 4K and 8K, respectively.

As of now, there is no information on why YouTube has incorporated this modification. Even if they wanted to update, they should have used the complete nomenclature for various resolutions.

Will This Make Any Difference In Watching Videos

No, this will not make any difference in watching videos on YouTube. Your device will use the same amount of data to stream a 720p resolution and the videos will look as they used to look.

YouTube is currently limiting the streaming resolution on smartphones to 480p to reduce bandwidth consumption during the COVID-19 crisis. This applies to both Android and iOS devices. Users can still watch videos in 720p or 1080p resolution on smartphones. However, to do so they have to access YouTube from a web browser.