In its continued pursuit of making a better user experience, YouTube has just rolled out several fantastic new features that make watching videos smoother. From a sleek mini player to shaking off the dreaded playback speed to a sleep timer, YouTube’s latest batch of updates covers a wide range of user desires. All of these exciting new features are broken down below.
1. The Miniplayer Upgrade: Multitask Like Never Before
A long-awaited update to YouTube’s miniplayer has been introduced by the video sharing website to allow users to multitask while watching videos. The upgraded mini player makes a small sliver of the video appear in the corner of the screen, letting you check out other videos, descriptions, and comments without breaking up playback. Now, whether you are reviewing recommendations or looking for the next video to binge, the enhanced mini-player guarantees you never lose a second.
It is particularly convenient for the mobile user who repeatedly has to switch from one app to another or switch from function to function on the device. One of the things that is great about this is that it allows you to monitor the video you are on, without having to leave YouTube – it’s as close as you can get to YouTube, a kind of picture-in-picture mode from within the YouTube app.
2. Fine-Tunable Playback Speed: Opt For Your Tailor View
However, the standard playback speeds (0.5x, 1x, 1.5x, and 2x) may not be quite right, even if you’re slowing down a tutorial or speeding up a podcast. Now, YouTube’s newest feature provides a more granular approach to the video speed, so you can see things like slow motion in smaller amounts. The feature now allows you to pick the exact playback speed from 0.25 x to 2 x, and you can set it according to your viewing needs.
For anyone consuming educational content, tutorials, or presentations, there’s something quite useful about this level of customization to speed along or slow down content for greater comprehension or efficiency.
3. Sleep Timer: Perfect for Binge-Watchers
The sleep timer is one of the most widely used features in this rollout, and it’s a dream come true for those of us who like to watch videos in bed. On the other hand, with the sleep timer, you can play YouTube videos for a specific amount of time, which is very much handy for those, who want to fall asleep while watching YouTube. But now you won’t have to worry about waking up several hours later with your playlist still playing. All you have to do is set the timer for anything between 15 minutes and a couple of hours and YouTube will itself pause the content when your timer expires.
Don’t get me wrong, this feature isn’t merely a convenience — it’s a battery and data-saving measure for mobile devices specifically so your device doesn’t drain its power while you snooze.
4. New Gesture Controls: Simplifying Navigation
In addition, YouTube has also added control based on gestures, which has made it much easier to scroll and browse videos on mobile. You can now fast forward/rewind from the TV, open the full-screen mode by swiping up from the screen, and exit from the TV by swiping down. Mobile users love getting things done quickly by tapping around, but these gestures help keep things fluid for your content when your device isn’t flat and ready for constant button tapping.
5. Improved queuing and playlist management.
For those who can’t venture far enough away from YouTube to have ample time to create a playlist and curate their own watch queue, playlist management is even easier on YouTube. You can now drag-and-drop videos from within playlists and queues, rearrange them quickly, or even add videos to the queue directly from search results inside of your current viewing experience without interruption. It’s a small, but important update that lets users assemble their perfect watch list on the go and gets everything ready for one smooth view.
6. Enhanced Search Results
Improvements to YouTube’s search functionality have also been made. Smart filters for the search make it easier for users to find videos suitably relevant to their specific interests. And no matter if you’re hunting for the latest uploads, live streams or specific genres, the advanced filters help you track specifically what you’re looking for far quicker than you might expect.
Final Thoughts
This is why YouTube’s latest round of updates reinforces its dedication to improving the user experience through more flexibility control, and convenience, wherever you go. Whether you’re a casual viewer or someone who spends hours on the platform daily, these add some new ways to make your YouTube experience better. The addition of miniplayer, fine-tuned playback speeds, sleep timer, gesture controls, and more is evidence that YouTube certainly listens to those who use it and alters the behavior of the service based on input.
Instead of being catered to the individual user, these new tools show YouTube’s intention to enhance YouTube’s app functionality long term, making YouTube one of the best content consumption platforms.
What do you think about these new YouTube features? We want to know how you plan to use them!