YouTubeโs redesigned UI shown on TV, laptop, and phone | Image: YouTube
YouTube announced some new design changes that are rolling out now, including pinch-to-zoom for everyone and precise seeking with a more usable preview to help you find the section of the video youโre looking for.
YouTubeโs new pinch-to-zoom feature lets you zoom in on videos the same way you do on photos. If this sounds familiar, itโs because YouTube started testing the feature with YouTube Premium subscribers in August. Itโs (finally) getting precise seeking as well, which should help you rewind (or fast-forward) videos to an exact location. When scrolling through a video, YouTube will open up a frame-by-frame view, making it a lot easier to find and watch a certain section.
Image: YouTube
This will make it a lot easier to replay certain parts of a video.
After weeks of testing, YouTubeโs also introducing a new ambient mode that uses โdynamic color sampling,โ so the appโs background color adapts to the colors in the video youโre watching. This featureโs rolling out on the web and mobile for everyone using a dark theme. Itโs extending the same look to videos in playlists as well, so you wonโt be so distracted by the background bordering the video youโre watching.
Image: YouTube
The videoโs supposed to blend in to the background.
And if you prefer to use dark mode on YouTube, the company announced itโs making its dark mode even darker โso the colors truly pop on your screen,โ whether youโre watching videos on your phone, computer, or smart TV. The platformโs giving its โsubscribeโ button a makeover, too, and is also changing the links in video descriptions to buttons. Meanwhile, the like, share, and download buttons are โformatted to minimize distractions,โ and video thumbnails will now appear with rounded corners. This brings YouTubeโs look in line with Googleโs Material You design changes, which it has already brought to a number of its apps, including Gmail, Docs, and Calendar.