A taste of Material You is just what the doctor ordered
YouTube on Android TV may be more popular than ever these days, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen meaningful changes to the app. That isn’t to say Google’s not hard at work on new features — we’re just not sure how much we really need the inclusion of a Shorts shelf in YouTube on our (horizontal) TVs. Thankfully, the app’s latest update throws us a bit of a bone, introducing some useful tweaks to YouTube’s Android TV interface.
The YouTube app on Android TV and Google TV just hit its 3.0 release and is making it much easier to get info about the video you’re watching, while also adding some light Material You elements to the player UI. As 9to5Google points out, we see that video titles no longer appear in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, instead moving to a rounded-off box with the video uploader’s name, view count, and publish date, all left-aligned above the playback progress bar.
The video description box also shows up in the same spot, as an overlay above the video you’re watching. This could potentially be an annoyance when it obscures a lot of the screen, but that also affords you the opportunity to read the whole description without missing the video.
Another interface change dims the video recommendations shown underneath the progress bar — these stay in place even when you’re seeking through the video. A consequence of this is that the buttons for liking or disliking, playback speed, and quality controls now take more taps on your remote to get to, which might take a little time to re-learn.
The modified UI is a notable departure from YouTube’s previous big-screen look, and feels inspired by smaller devices. Sure, there’s a bit more visual clutter (but also more info) — hopefully, we’ll see some more changes along this line that refine the experience and make it more cohesive with YouTube on other platforms.
The new YouTube update for Android TV and Google TV is rolling out now, and we are already seeing it on our devices.
