YouTube is completely changing how its video player looks on your phone
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.YouTube is completely changing how videos look when watching them on a phone.
The Google-owned video service will be adding the like and dislike button, the comments button, and the share button on the bottom left of the screen – rather than hidden behind a swipe-up gesture as it is now.
The dislike button will, however, no longer show quantitively the number of people pressing it. YouTube announced last month that it would be removing the visible dislike count because users were abusing it “for many reasons, including some that have nothing to do with the video, which means it’s not always an accurate way to select videos to watch”, according to chief executive Susan Wojcicki.
The overhaul of YouTube’s layout will only show for users watching videos in the full-screen, landscape mode; for those watching it vertically, the layout will remain the same.
Tapping the comment button will now bring up other users’ messages on the right-hand side of the screen instead of the current format which required users to be in portrait mode to access them and then switch back into landscape mode.
The new user interface is not yet available to everyone, but it is being tested on both iOS and Android simultaneously and began rolling out on Monday.
Google also announced another niche change to its Gmail client yesterday, adding in Google Chat, Meet, and Spaces to a sidebar on the main site.
Google said that the new menu will make it easier to “stay on top of what immediately needs your attention” by letting users switch their attention without having to change tabs or windows.
The new design will be rolling out as an option in February but will become the compulsory option for premium Gmail users – those that have paid for its business services – by mid-2022.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments