A new look and feel is coming to YouTube. There are changes to both the desktop site and mobile apps, there’s a bit more to the latter.

Mobile make-over

For starters, the header on the app is cleaned up: it’s now white and the nav tabs have shifted to the bottom. As well as looking neater, the lower buttons are more accessible to thumb-based interactions.

Also, imrpoved aspect-ratio matching will mean that the app interface adjusts to present various video formats while making efficient use of screen space.

Other new features include new gesture-based interactions, browsing suggested videos while you watch and controlling playback speed.

Honourable intentions

The official YouTube blog made the intentions of the revamp clear: it aims to make the YouTube experience more consistent across desktop and mobile sites, and to add practicality without increasing complexity.

Content at the fore

Another priority is to ensure that content remains (or is even more) at the fore of the YouTube experience.

For example, the desktop site now has a ‘dark theme’ that dims the interface background when you watch a video. There has never been a more cinematic way to watch cats play Casio keyboards.

Do you think YouTube’s new look brings practical advantage, or is it just a new coat of paint?

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