YouTube offers some hidden features that make your life easier, but not all of them are available on both mobile and desktop. It makes sense because some features don’t make sense on all screen sizes. However, a UI overhaul is something that everyone loves if it’s done right, regardless of the device type.
This wasn’t quite the case with YouTube’s redesigned web player, which came to our attention when Google started testing it with select users back in April this year. While YouTube’s new web player UI looked more modern and became consistent with Google Drive’s video player, the Mountain View tech giant removed certain features from the new design, inviting lots of criticism. Now, it has updated YouTube’s web player once again, addressing some issues it previously had and refining the UI design further.
YouTube is rolling out a much-improved web player interface
But it’s not all good news
The new web player that YouTube started testing with select users offered Material Design 3’s pill-shaped controls for the first time. The pill-shaped design hasn’t changed much in the latest update, but we now see updated action icons both in the bottom left and right. The new action icons now appear slightly bigger and have higher contrast.
It’s not just about the design, though. The updated web player interface has also brought back the ability to use mouse scroll to control the volume slider, which appears in the bottom right. Not only that, you can also hover on the volume slider to adjust the audio, as was the case in the old web player UI.
However, not everything is worth praising in the improved web player interface. For example, while the Play/ Pause button is prominent in the bottom left, the Next button is missing. Unlike previously, the play option is now followed by the timestamp button. While this does sound like a significant downgrade, we’re hoping to see a fix from Google soon.
Moreover, we noticed that the timestamp button is now clickable. The YouTube progress bar now supports two different types of timestamps. The default one shows how much the video has been played, while the other option shows how much time is left until the video ends. You can switch between the two by clicking the timestamp button.
The Cinema mode has also changed to Theater mode, switching to which now shows a downward-facing arrow at the bottom of the video player. You can click on it or scroll your mouse upward to reveal the More videos panel.
Google started rolling out the new web media player UI to more users earlier in July, but it looks like the company hasn’t been able to make it available for everyone. Many of my colleagues at Android Police still don’t have the new web media player, so if you don’t see them yet, wait a few more days.
