YouTube is revamping its TV app to make videos feel way more interactive


YouTube is constantly tinkering with its app design across different platforms and screen sizes, and today, the company shared the latest changes coming to its TV-optimized app. There’s a clear focus on making the viewing experience more interactive and giving greater prominence to chapters, comments, and video descriptions — without getting in the way of the video you’re trying to watch.
The new view shrinks the video down slightly to make space for the description, comments, and other elements around it. It’s not YouTube’s new default look, since many people will still prefer a full-screen layout. But you can easily click into the more interactive interface from the standard video player screen.
“What users will be able to see on their TVs is a design solution that keeps the video front and center, but layers in the ability to access the features that make YouTube unique — all without interrupting the viewing experience,” YouTube’s Joe Hines and Aishwarya Agarwal wrote in a blog post.
The design changes started “with the idea of reducing the size of the video player and simplifying the interactions.” YouTube’s design team came up with several prototypes that varied in complexity and then had users provide feedback on which approach worked best. That’s how it landed on this new TV experience.
By shifting interactive features to the right side, YouTube is also making a renewed effort to bring shopping to the TV screen. You’ll see a “products in this video” section appear whenever creators include what’s being featured in their content. But YouTube hasn’t quite reached the stage of letting you complete an entire transaction from your TV; instead, the app will display a QR code that you can scan to finish buying an item on your phone. Not exactly seamless.
YouTube says this redesign will also make its way to YouTube TV, which will allow subscribers of that service to keep track of scores without obstructing whatever game is on. As is often the case with these things, YouTube will roll out the TV app updates to users “over the next few weeks” rather than provide it to everyone at once.
YouTube is constantly tinkering with its app design across different platforms and screen sizes, and today, the company shared the latest changes coming to its TV-optimized app. There’s a clear focus on making the viewing experience more interactive and giving greater prominence to chapters, comments, and video descriptions — without…
Recent Posts
- FTC Chair praises Justice Thomas as ‘the most important judge of the last 100 years’ for Black History Month
- HP acquires Humane AI assets and the AI pin will suffer a humane death
- HP acquires Humane AI assets and the AI pin may suffer a humane death
- HP acquires Humane Ai and gives the AI pin a humane death
- DOGE can keep accessing government data for now, judge rules
Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2018
- October 2017
- December 2011
- August 2010