If you use theYouTubeapp daily, you may or may not have noticed a few design changes recently. YouTube has begun widely rolling out a number of new updates to its Android and iOS app, including atranslucent bottom bar, as well as tweaked icons on it.
The translucent effect on the bottom bar is more noticeable if you use YouTube indark mode, and it essentially makes it so you’re able to see through the bottom bar rather than it being a static color like before.
9to5Googledescribed it best as a “frosted glass effect.” You can see thumbnails of videos in it that are slightly blurred when you’re scrolling through the home and subscription feed, almost like a sneak preview of what’s coming next. The tweaked icons on the bottom bar include a new facade roof on the home icon, a more pronounced Shorts button, and a slightly resigned plus and subscriptions button.
YouTube’s hidden gaming section is finally worth checking out
YouTube is starting to add multiplayer functionality to some of the games in its Playable games library.
What else is new on YouTube?
A revamped miniplayer and a sleep timer
These minor visual changes are part of a number of updates YouTube announced and started introducing in October. As someone who pays forYouTube Premiumand spends a lot of time using the app, I think the changes are small but worthwhile improvements.
Firstly, YouTube added a new sleep timer feature that lets users set a timer for YouTube to stop playing a video in case you fall asleep. You can set a timer for up to an hour or until the end of the video. I am very guilty of falling asleep on YouTube almost every night and have woken up many times to a random video playing, so the new sleep timer feature is what I’m most excited about.
The app’s miniplayer has been revamped too, allowing you to move it to any corner of your screen instead of being stuck at the bottom like before. It has rounded corners now and a new 10-second rewind/forward button. It looks a lot like Android’s picture-in-picture window. YouTube has also changed its playback speed option, adding a new slider to customize the speed at which a video is playing. All these changes are rolling out on YouTube now. Just make sure your app is up-to-date to start seeing them.
Take a break from it all with YouTube TV’s newest 24/7 channel
YouTube TV has added a 24/7 Zen channel to its streaming service that lets you enjoy a moment of peace and calm.
