YouTube App Gains New Features

Google has updated the YouTube app for iOS and Android with new gestures and reorganised playback controls making the app more intuitive to use.

Currently, the AutoPlay button is below the video and this has been relocated to to the top of the video as a toggle. These settings are also “snappier” and captions are easier to access from the top-right menu.

Captions are easier to access and AutoPlay has been moved

To enter full screen, you can simply swipe upwards when viewing a video instead of tapping the expand icon at the bottom. Swiping down will let you exit full screen.

Suggested Actions will provide a heads up to users when they need to perform an action such as rotating their phone to view content made for VR, and tapping on the timestamp will show you the time remaining in a video.

An improved user interface for Chapters makes it easier to visually see different chapters within a video. You can tap the chapter timestamp or title to open this new UI, which lists each chapter and a thumbnail of the content.

The changes are rolling out today but most users should’ve received them through the course of the past few months. Update or download YouTube from the App Store for free.

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Ben Ward

Senior Editor, discussing everything Apple and supporting other writers and members of Apple TLD's team of volunteers.

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