Once upon a time, in the early days of smartphones (y’know, a few years ago), a company would do everything possible to make its app look as similar to its website as possible. Now everything is topsy-turvy. Today YouTube revealed that some of the website’s new look is going to be borrowed from its mobile app. Brave new world.
These are definitely subtle changes, but the first thing you may (or may not) notice is that everything is shifting over to be centre-aligned, like the app. This should make it fit more tidily on any sized screen. Tabs like “What to Watch” and “My Subscriptions” will become slightly more prominent, with links to both at the top-center of your page. Also, check out that little guide icon to the right of the YouTube logo. That’ll be your ever-present shortcut for getting to your subscriptions, playlists, and other favourite stuffs regardless of how deep into the video rabbit-hole you’ve fallen.
YouTube is also placing a heavier emphasis on playlists. Your guide will now feature all of the playlists that you’ve personally created, but also playlists from other channels that you’ve liked. There’s also going to be an improved playlist editor page which should make tweaking the lists you’ve made easier. If you’re wanting to find new playlists that you might enjoy, go to one of your favourite channels and click on the Playlists tab. You can see a good example of this now on YouTube Nation’s channel.
While making full-sized sites more like their mobile equivalents may seem weird on the surface, it actually makes a lot of sense. According to YouTube, people are spending almost half their YouTube time within the mobile app. In order for a mobile application to work well, it really needs to be simple, clean, and straight-forward, so it only seems logical that YouTube would borrow from that one to achieve greater parity with the other. I’m also pro-playlists, as the more time we can spend watching stuff we enjoy, and the less time we spend searching for it, the more internet video will become what we all dream TV could be. Good stuff.
We were told that the changes may take a few hours or days to roll out to all users everywhere. Are you eager to try out the new tweaks, or is this something you’d never even notice?