The hours you spend watching YouTube videos are about to get a little more enjoyable with the latest UI improvements coming to mobile, desktop, and TV. They simplify navigation and give you precise control over playback.
Perhaps the most important new feature is Mobile Precise Search – press and hold the screen to view a visual timeline for the video, then you can search back and forth to find the precise moment you need (you can see it in action below) . You can also double-tap with two fingers to skip a chapter.
Pinch to Zoom is another handy tweak that lets you see the part of the video you want. The pinch gesture was already used to go from pillarboxing to cropping the video to fit the screen, now you can continue zooming in further to see something better.
The YouTube player on mobile and desktop now offers ambient mode for those using dark mode – it allows the colors of the video to flow out of the player, creating a soft lighting effect. It’s not quite Ambilight, but it removes the hard border between the video and the black background.
Speaking of dark mode, it’s now even darker on mobile, desktop, and TV. The playlist interface has also been reworked, with a touch of ambient color magic plus extra detail on the playlist itself.
Finally, there are some usability improvements. The YouTube links in the video description are now shown as easy-to-locate buttons, while the buttons for frequent actions (like, share, download and subscribe) have been redesigned to minimize distractions and make them more accessible.
Although these changes are now in effect, they will take some time to propagate to each user. You should start seeing them in the next few weeks.
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