YouTube updates its mobile and TV applications by adding a dozen new functions. On the program: an optimized interface, community badges, collaborative playlists and a sleep mode.
While YouTube continues to impose ever more advertising on its users, the platform must more than ever be essential on a daily basis to justify this inconvenience and the price of its subscription, far from cheap. Also, Google continues to improve it, perfecting it little by little. In a blog postthe company announces the deployment of an update with no less than a dozen options on mobile, on PC, but also on TV, for all users, whether they are Premium subscribers or take advantage of the free offer. On the program: interface optimization, community badges, collaborative playlists and a sleep mode.
YouTube: collaborative playlists and better navigation
First important change: it is now possible to increase the reading speed by x0.05 instead of the current x0.25. However, if you want to go faster, you will still be limited to 2x speed. Practical for saving time but not missing any of the content you are watching!
To enjoy better navigation, you can also minimize a YouTube video currently playing in the mini-player in order to move it elsewhere on your smartphone screen. A good way to search for another video while the current one is still running. A function that premium users already know and which is now accessible to everyone. You’ll also find improved navigation in landscape mode with greater responsiveness, larger thumbnails, and larger text.
YouTube also includes the ability to create collaborative playlists by sharing a link or a QR code. They include many new customization tools, to modify the thumbnail for example, with an existing photo or by using AI. Subsequently, users will be able to vote for their favorite content within the playlists in order to establish a ranking according to their preferences, or personalize the video thumbnail with Google AI to generate an image or improve a shot in the video. You can then personalize it with text, filters or stickers.
YouTube: a timer and a new TV interface
Like many users, you may be used to falling asleep late at night, exhausted from your work day, with the help of a short YouTube video. However, they tend to follow one another, which means that we “forget” to pick up our smartphone and go to sleep. Or maybe YouTube runs all night. Fortunately, Google has found the solution with the Sleep Timer function, which simply allows you to choose a duration from which the video should stop and the phone should go to sleep. This timer was already available to Premium subscribers, but it is now accessible to everyone.
Google also announces the arrival of badges for its mobile application in order to strengthen the community side of the platform. “We’ll start with just a few badges for launch, which will celebrate milestones unique to YouTube, like being in the first group of paid members on a creator’s channel, or correctly answering quizzes“, indicates the American giant.
Finally, the interface of the TV application has the right to an overhaul, in order to offer “a more cinematic feel”. Thus, at the Shorts level, the comments now appear on the sides, the space being previously unused. Likewise, YouTube hosts “immersive channels”. “When you visit a creator’s channel, a video will automatically start playing, giving viewers a preview of the creator’s content and taking them right into the action“, explains the Mountain View firm. On the other hand, you will continue to be bombarded with advertisements, unless you subscribe to the paid subscription.