YouTube turned 20 a month ago, with its first video hitting that milestone today. It looks like the UI designers and frontend developers at the video giant have been busy, as a new video player interface is now in testing for some users.
This fresh coat of paint moves things around quite a bit compared to the layout users have been accustomed to for a decade.
As you can see, the new UI features buttons for each prominent action. The Play/Pause button is more prominent, followed by the Next button, the video timestamp, and video chapters, all nestled in their own pills or capsules.
The volume button is being shifted onto the other side of the player controls, now sharing its capsule with the rest of the action icons like settings and fullscreen. YouTube has also embraced a frosted-glass style for its player menus, using a semi-transparent Gaussian blur to softly mute the video content behind the controls.
A potentially significant functional change appears to be the volume control. Seemingly, you can no longer hover on the volume slider and scroll or even use the up or down keys to adjust the audio. Neowin also noticed that installing extensions, such as Sponsorblock, might affect the placement of menus within this new design.
This isn't the first time YouTube has tinkered with its interface or made changes that rubbed users the wrong way. Perhaps one of the most memorable UI controversies was the removal of the iconic bright red subscribe button, a staple of the platform's identity for years.
This change saw the prominent red button replaced with a white or grey button featuring red text. This move was met with surprise, dislike, and confusion among users and creators who felt the new button was less visible and did not stand out as effectively as a call to action.
More recently, there was controversy over larger thumbnails on the homepage and tests that moved video descriptions and comments into a sidebar, separating them from related videos. The removal of the public dislike count also generated significant backlash from the community, as did past changes to monetization that impacted creators.
As for the updated player UI, some netizens are not happy with the look. Reactions shared online indicate significant frustration with the altered layout and perceived loss of functionality. Some users were quick to voice their displeasure and questioned the necessity of the change entirely:
UX Developers need to justify their salaries somehow.
The UI was already fine, but they need to justify why Google has to pay them so they'll keep working on pointless and bad updates.
In other YouTube news, the platform's Music service now lets you share lyrics with other users. For now, the feature is only available to select Android users, and there’s no information on when Google will bring it to other platforms.
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