YouTube in 4K is finally coming to Safari on the Mac

Safari YouTube on Mac (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 4 has added 4K HDR playback for YouTube on Safari.
Until now, users have had to use Chrome on macOS to watch YouTube in 4K.
The upgrade will be available to all Mac users who upgrade to Big Sur this fall.

Safari is finally going to be able to play YouTube in 4K on the Mac.

Announced by Apple in the macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 4 Release Notes, Safari will now support 4K HDR playback for YouTube videos that were shot in the resolution.

Rene Ritchie, YouTuber and podcast host, also tweeted out the find earlier today:

WOOHOO!

—

Safari and Webkit
New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 4
•Support for 4K HDR playback of YouTube videos. (64824895)https://t.co/1m9HGVYC9vWOOHOO!

—

Safari and Webkit
New Features in macOS Big Sur 11 beta 4
•Support for 4K HDR playback of YouTube videos. (64824895)https://t.co/1m9HGVYC9v— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) August 4, 2020 August 4, 2020

Until now, playback of YouTube videos in Safari on macOS has been limited to 1080p. This is a welcome update, as users have been able to stream YouTube in 4K through the Chrome browser on the Mac for a while now.

The feature is currently only available to those with the macOS Big Sur 11 Beta 4 installed. The macOS Big Sur Public Beta is still not out, so it is unclear if 4K HDR playback will be available in the first version of that release.

Regardless, it appears that all Mac users will finally be able to stream YouTube in 4K HDR when macOS Big Sur releases to the public this fall.

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.