What you need to know
- YouTube turned 20 recently, and it is bringing new features and some tweaks to its design on its TV app.
- YouTube TV members can experiment with building their own multiview, and this can be done with non-sports content as well.
- It is expanding its “voice reply” to comments feature to more creators across the board.
- The redesign of the YouTube app will also include a new look for its video player.
YouTube turned 20 this week and celebrating its two decade milestone, the streaming platform shared some fun facts about its inception along with latest features that are being testing and coming to users soon.
What began as a 19-second video back in 2023 has now evolved into a full-blown streaming giant, with over 20 million video uploads each day. YouTube has also become a hub for people to have conversations and comment, and react to all sorts of videos, whether they like it or not. According to the streaming platform, “in 2024, YouTube users averaged over 100 million comments on videos daily. And we discovered that last year, creators received comments from an average of 10 million viewers every day.â
That said, YouTube seems to be giving back to its avid users as well. In its blog post, YouTube said that in a few weeks, YouTube TV users can test out multiviews on their account. They can build their personalized multi-view window that showcases non-sports channels as well. Considering that YouTube is testing this feature out, YouTube says that it is starting “with a small group of popular channels and expanding in the coming months.”
For its Premium users, the streaming platform is immediately rolling out 4x playback speed on mobile devices. This was being tested out in February and has now finally landed. More creators will have the ability to voice-respond to comments on their videos.
Furthermore, users can start creating their personalized radio station with the AI-powered tool called “Ask Music”. You can speak or ask YouTube to create a playlist for you with “upbeat songs for a morning run,” “calm jazz for studying,” “80s-inspired indie,” or even something more specific to your mood. Ask Music is available on iOS and Android for all YouTube Premium and YouTube Music users.
Lastly, the YouTube TV app is getting a full redesign this summer, the blog post added.”Easier navigation, playback, quality tweaks, plus streamlined access to comments, channel info, and subscribing are heading to your screens,” YouTube stated.
The company shared a quick glimpse of what the new UI would look like, featuring video from @LoFiGirl. The controls on the new UI are more spread out when compared to the current version. The channel, description, and subscribe buttons are on the left, the play/pause and next controls are in the center, making it more accessible and prominent. While the other controls, like settings and the like/dislike toggles, remain on the left of the screen, as seen above.
