Believe it or not, we spend most of our time-consuming content in video form and it’s important to know that the network you’re connected to is able to provide you with the best possible video experience.
Thanks to Ookla’s Speedtest app, you can now measure the quality of your streaming experience on your network at any time. This is necessary because video streaming can perform differently than the rest of the things you do on the internet and can provide a slower watching experience even if your internet has a fast download speed.
In this post, we’ll explain to you the latest video streaming test on Speedtest, how it’s helpful in forging out your streaming experience and how you can use it to test your own network.
What’s the new feature in the Speedtest app? How does it work?
Speedtest’s latest addition comes in the form of a new benchmark that tests the video streaming performance of your network. This benchmark then gives you the load time, maximum resolution, and buffer you can expect from your current network. 
This way you can know whether or not it’s the right time to stream a movie or TV show that you’ve been wanting to watch or if you’ll be greeted with the buffering status from time to time.
Additionally, the test will also help you decide which device you should use to stream a video on, whether you should stream it on your large-size TV or stick to your smartphone instead based on your current network conditions.
With this new Speedtest feature, you can:
- Determine that you have a network problem if the video test isn’t streamed at the maximum resolution supported by your device.
- Be sure that you’re getting lower bandwidth than expected to stream videos.
- Have a log of all your test results when you weren’t able to stream videos and can use it when contacting your service provider.
To determine your network’s streaming quality, the Speedtest app streams a video at various resolutions until it reaches your network’s limit. The service achieves this by calculating the adaptive bitrate which in turn gives you the quality of the video you can stream on your network.
Availability
The latest video streaming benchmark by Ookla can only be accessed from the Speedtest for iOS app that can only be downloaded on iPhones and iPads. Ookla has however revealed that the test will be available on more platforms soon but for now, it’s limited to devices running on iOS.
How to Check your Network’s Video Streaming Speed
The ability to benchmark the video streaming quality of your network is only available on the Speedtest for iOS app that’s developed by Ookla. So to be able to check your network’s video streaming quality, you need to make sure that you’re using an iPhone or iPad.
Since the video test is dependent on the latest version of the app, you need to install the Speedtest for iOS on your iPhone or iPad from the App Store on your device or simply go to this link on your iOS device. 
After you have installed the Speedtest for iOS app on your iPhone, open it. When the app loads up, tap on the ‘Video’ tab at the bottom to get to the new video test. 
You will be shown a summary of what the video test on Speedtest is all about. Tap on OK to get started. 
To initiate the video test, tap on the Play button at the top portion of the screen. 
Speedtest will now start testing the adaptive bitrate of your network connection.
It will first load a video with the basic quality and then play videos at higher qualities depending on whether your network is able to play it. 
At the end of the testing, you will be shown the maximum resolution quality at the top, as well as the estimated load time and buffer. On the same screen, you will also be shown what device you can use to stream videos on the selected network. 
If your video streaming quality is excellent, the result will include large phones, tablets, laptops, and TVs but if your network doesn’t offer fast video streaming, you will be recommended to watch videos on a smaller phone as shown in this result.
