The YouTube app for Android received the ability to play HDR content in September. The functionality is only available on a handful of devices that have an HDR-certified display. Devices that don’t can not take advantage of this functionality. Those who used it on supported devices often reported performance issues on higher resolution. Perhaps that’s why Google has now capped HDR in YouTube for Android to 1080p.
Users who now want to stream HDR content in the YouTube app on Android will now find that the maximum resolution for HDR in the app is now 1080p.
It was initially possible to play HDR content in the YouTube app for Android at 1440p resolution. That option now appears to have been removed entirely from the app.
It seems that Google hasn’t been able to find a fix for the performance issues or the handsets that are capable of playing HDR content aren’t robust enough to handle HDR on mobile at higher resolutions.
There’s no clarity about this from Google as yet. It has quietly made this change and capped HDR streaming at full HD 1080p resolution. That’s why it can’t be said for sure at this point in time when Google will enable users to stream HD at higher resolutions.