YouTube On Desktop Is Getting A Modern Makeover With Material Design 3 Elements
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Summary
- To mark its 20th anniversary, YouTube announced several upcoming upgrades, including custom multiviews for YouTube TV (non-sports), expanded voice replies for creators, and a refreshed TV app UI.
- Coinciding with the anniversary, desktop users are reporting a new video player UI that resembles Google Drive’s interface and the upcoming TV design, featuring pill-shaped controls and a relocated vertical volume slider.
- This new desktop UI represents a significant change from the previous design and aligns with updates seen on other Google platforms, though user reactions to the modern look are mixed.
Google-owned YouTube turned 20 today, and to mark the occasion, the streaming giant announced several upgrades to the platform on multiple surfaces — some that are already live, and others that are coming in the near future.
These include an upcoming option to create custom multiviews for select non-sports content for YouTube TV users, the expansion of comment voice replies to more creators, an upcoming UI update for the YouTube app on TVs, and a lot more!
Related
YouTube’s blog post was short on desktop-related announcements. However, coinciding with the milestone, YouTube users on desktop are reporting seeing a new video player UI — one that mimics the Google Drive video player’s interface, and the one shown off by YouTube as an upcoming “TV viewing upgrade.”
The new layout, which significantly changes the UI that we’ve come to love for nearly a decade now, favors Material Design 3’s pill-shaped controls. Spotted by a few users who gained access to the new UI and shared their findings on Reddit (via Android Authority), the new UI doesn’t really shuffle the interface’s controls, except for the volume slider, which is now on the opposite side of the screen.
Here’s what the new UI looks like
Current UI (left), upcoming UI (right)
Elsewhere, the controls being placed within pills and the volume icon’s relocation aren’t the only changes. The volume bar slider, which has long been a horizontal adjustment, is now changing to a vertical slider, with some suggesting that the ability to hover and scroll or use keyboard keys for adjustment might have been removed.
The new UI’s style is very similar to the one YouTube plans to roll out for TV users, which is expected to debut some time later this summer. I personally like the new UI — it gives the platform a slightly more modern look. However, I don’t really blame the users that are unhappy with the change, especially considering how radial it is.
The writing has been on the wall for some time now. Other platforms that previously used the old YouTube interface (Drive and Google Vids) already transitioned to the new UI months ago, and YouTube’s own web player would have had to transition sooner or later. Has this new UI rolled out for you? Do you like it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
