YouTube UI changes
YouTube has been rolling out new design and interactive features to improve the experience for users.
Overall, these YouTube UI changes are nothing monumental and don’t disturb any of the classic YouTube features. More so, they add small modern elements that aim to improve user experiences.
Interactive changes
First, we are going to dive into the first YouTube UI changes, interactive developments. That is, features that tweak how viewers will interact with videos.
Pinch to zoom
Similar to Instagram’s zooming feature, one of YouTube’s newest implementations is the pinch to zoom feature. Whether you want to get a closer look at a tutorial or focus on something in the background, this allows users to get a deeper look into videos.
This is available on both iOS and Android apps when viewing in full screen mode.
Here’s how to pinch to zoom in on content:
- While in full screen mode, use two fingers to touch the video.
- Move your fingers in two different directions while still keeping your fingers on the screen.
- Once you let go, the video will stay in the new zoom level.
And, if you want to zoom out:
- While the video is in the new zoom level, put two fingers back on the screen and now move them towards each other, as if you were pinching something.
- After you get back to the zoom level you want, you can take your fingers off the screen.
Precise seeking
Have you ever been watching a video and look away for a second and realize you missed an important part? With precise seeking, now you will be able to jump to specific scenes in videos. This is available for web and mobile versions. Want to know how to use it? Let me show you!
Source: TechViral
How to use precise seeking
- When viewing a video, click on the screen where you will see the progress bar appear at the bottom.
- Place your cursor on the red dot and drag up.
- From here, you will see all the video clips where you can scroll forward or backward to choose where you want to seek. The video will pause while you scroll.
- Once you have found the spot you want to play the video, just press the play button.
- To cancel the seek, click on the ‘x’ button before pressing play.
Visual changes
Although the interactive changes also have visual adjustments involved, these next UI changes in YouTube are more focused on adapting to the viewer eye and creating a more cohesive visual experience.
In Youtube’s blog post announcing their updates, they stated,
“Color was a key theme for us during our development phase. We wanted to add vibrancy to our apps without detracting from viewers habits, whether that’s enjoying their recommended videos or browsing for new content.”
Links
We all know that you can add links into the video description section. However, it can look messy to see long URLs. In an effort to clean up distractions, links in video descriptions will change to buttons.
Also, the format of the like, share and download actions will be changed to diminish disturbance.
The ‘Subscription’ button will also undergo a makeover and now have a new shape and resolution and change to black and white, instead of the classic red color.
Hashtags will also change from a blue color to white.
Source: YouTube Blog
Ambient Mode
YouTube wanted to recreate the image of when light from a screen is casted out in a darkened room. Thus, Ambient Mode aims to tackle this idea by matching the app background color to the video in focus.
The intention for Ambient Mode is to attract viewers and increase focus on the watch page. However, this feature will only be accessible when Dark Theme is turned on. It is also available on both web and mobile.
Source: YouTube Blog
Dark Theme
YouTube wasn’t joking when they said color was a theme for their development phase. Whereas Dark Theme is already an established feature, YouTube has altered it to make it even darker. Why? So that color comes to life and is at the forefront in videos. This will be available on web, mobile and even Smart TV’s.
Now you know about all of the new YouTube UI changes that are slowly being rolled out to the public. What do you think about these new developments? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
