Summary
- Reports suggest YouTube’s visual identity on Android may receive a slight tweak, along with the introduction of a new bottom bar.
- Despite criticism for changes like new video player designs, YouTube has listened to users and kept its visuals independent of other Google apps.
- Google recognized YouTube’s potential early on, leading to its purchase and subsequent success in the online video space.
YouTube hadn’t been in business for very long when Google recognized its potential and already-dominant success and purchased it. Since then, many decisions by the Google-owned YouTube have been criticized, such as the new video player design on desktop that quickly left the room. However, with Google’s resources and YouTube’s near monopoly in the online video space, the brand has done a lot of listening to its users (most of the time) and has kept its visuals mostly independent of Google’s other apps. There are reports that its visual identity may be getting a slight tweak on Android.
Related
ARTICLE: YouTube on Android is getting a new miniplayer with full picture-in-picture support
It’s also coming to the web, Google confirms
According to 9to5Google, a report of a new bottom bar on YouTube for smartphones has been spotted. According to the report and subsequent images, the bar will feature new “Home” and “Subscriptions” logos, a more subtle plus button, and a translucent bar that shows what’s in the background. The blurred transparency of the rumored bar will help stretch the UI’s video feed to make it seem a bit taller as opposed to its shorter, more squished current counterpart (in comparison). Together with the more minimalist “Subscriptions” icon and the plus button that no longer is surrounded by a white line, the potential change could keep users’ attention more than YouTube already does. We, along with 9toGoogle’s team, have not seen this new bar appear on any of our devices.
A new bottom bar goes hand in hand with a new miniplayer
(Source: 9to5Google)
YouTube hasn’t been the main focus of Google’s attention span in the past month (a little thing called the Pixel 9 Pro and the like were just released), but it’s still getting some nice TLC lately. Perhaps the biggest mobile UI refresh that was confirmed by Google in recent weeks has been its development of a new miniplayer within the app. The current miniplayer gets attached to the bottom bar and cannot move around the screen. The new miniplayer in development will be able to be resized and placed anywhere in the app, modernizing an admittedly old-fashioned picture-in-picture mode.
YouTube Premium subscribers have already been able to experience certain picture-in-picture settings outside the confines of the app, including being able to listen to videos with the screen turned off. That’s not the only reason we think that a YouTube Premium subscription might be worth it, however. Members can opt in for experimental features like a new sleep timer setting with Premium, too. No matter if you are a subscriber or not, however, certain groups of YouTube users are about to see long-form video recommendations in their YouTube Shorts feeds.
