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1 month ago
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YouTube has announced more than two dozen updates, including “fine-tunable” playback speed, a sleep timer and a more “cinematic feel” for its TV app.
The features will gradually roll out over the next few weeks as part of an annual product revamp, a blog post from the Google-owned video giant confirmed Tuesday.
While videos have already featured quarter-speed options (1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, and so on), the update will allow for adjustments in 0.05 increments.
Mobile users will also see improved browsing in landscape mode, with greater responsiveness, larger thumbnails and bigger text. The company also promises “visual improvements across YouTube” in an effort to “simplify” the app.
Users will be able to personalize playlists by designing their own thumbnails, including the ability to tap into YouTube’s growing AI capabilities for those designs. Also coming later this year is an option letting users vote on videos in playlists.
The new sleep timer allows mobile users to have videos automatically pause videos after a certain amount of time. The company said a test of the feature with YouTube Premium members earlier this year drew “rave reviews.”
YouTube’s TV app is also getting many of the enhancements coming to the mobile and web version, with “subtle touches” intended to give the viewing experience “a more cinematic feel.” The blog post advised viewers to “keep an eye out for new pops of pink, as well as other light touches that add dynamism.”
A new user interface on YouTube Shorts is also coming to the living room, letting viewers read comments or shop as content plays in the main window. Shorts, created as a TikTok alternative, was added to the YouTube TV app in 2022.
The updates follow the news last month that YouTube was launching “immersive channel pages” on its TV app. As soon as a viewer visits a creator’s channel, a video will begin playing automatically to give viewers a taste of the channel’s offering, with the goal of improving engagement.
