For a small group of people, Google reportedly briefly tested a change to YouTube Premium that would make 4K videos unavailable to free users.

YouTube has supported 4K video since 2010, years before the resolution format became commonplace, allowing the service to be more future-proof. In the 12 years since, 4K videos, and even higher resolutions such as the 8K videos introduced to the platform in 2015, have been available for free for all YouTube fans to watch.

YouTube has been testing to change that, according to multiple reports over the past month. For those in the Google experiment group, non-subscribing members will see the word "Premium" next to the 4K/2160p option when selecting a specific resolution for a video.

Simply put, the experiment adds a new restriction for YouTube's free subscribers and a new "benefit" for YouTube Premium. As it stands now, the YouTube Premium subscription removes ads from the platform, lets users play videos in the background on Android, and can even download videos for offline viewing. The package also comes bundled with YouTube Music, Google's music streaming service.

This will mark the first time YouTube has locked in higher video quality like 4K behind its Premium subscription. In some ways, it's actually reminiscent of the (soon-to-be-shuttered) Stadia Pro subscription, which enabled gamers to try Stadia games with HDR color in up to 4K and 5.1 surround sound.

According to multiple tweets from the official TeamYouTube account on Twitter, Google and YouTube have now stopped experimenting with giving Premium subscribers exclusive access to 4K video altogether. The company did not give a reason for the change, but there is no doubt that the massive amount of negative feedback online played a role in the decision.

Notably, in a tweet, the YouTube team provided fans with a link to instructions on how to provide direct feedback on the proposed Premium and YouTube 4K resolution changes. Although that experiment has now been canceled.