YouTube has just turned up the volume on user experience with exciting updates. On October 15, the platform rolled out new features and aesthetic enhancements across its television, web and mobile apps. Among the standout improvements are collaborative playlists that let users team up on shared music selections and an improved mini-player that can be resized and moved for optimal viewing.
Additionally, you can now fine-tune your playback speed in increments of 0.05x, providing greater control compared to the previous 0.25x adjustments.
With these collaborative playlists, YouTube is making it easier for users to create and share playlists with friends and family. You can invite others to contribute by sending a link or a QR code. As Johanna Voolich, YouTube's chief product officer, explained in a video clip, “A really good use case might be: I’m having a party, I want to invite my friends over, I want to watch some comedy together, I put on my favourite comedy videos, and then I ask them, and they could just add theirs to it; we can pop it on the TV and sit and watch together.”
With the help of the company’s generative AI feature “Create with AI,” users can either construct their unique playlist thumbnails using their images or select from a range of AI-powered creations based on a chosen topic. Users will have the option to vote on videos within playlists later this year. According to the company, creators can utilise this function to gather feedback on their videos.
Soon, all mobile YouTube users will be able to use the Sleep Timer feature, which enables them to set a timer that automatically pauses videos after a specified duration. This capability was first tested with premium members in August.
YouTube is also enhancing the mini-player experience on its mobile app, enabling users to move and resize it while watching videos. On Android, the app will display larger thumbnails and text in landscape mode, with support for iOS to be added later this year.
Additional features on the YouTube and YouTube Music mobile apps include badges that commemorate significant anniversaries within the YouTube community, such as being among the first group of subscribers to a creator’s channel, ranking among the top listeners of a preferred artist, receiving a creator's like on a comment, or correctly answering quizzes.
The TV app for YouTube Shorts, the service's bite-sized video feature, is receiving a new user interface that will allow for continuous interaction with the content without disrupting the viewing experience. Furthermore, as previously reported last month, YouTube's TV app will include immersive video previews on channel pages.
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