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Summary
- YouTube is tweaking its TV streaming app to reduce distractions and prioritize simplicity based on user feedback.
- The revised user interface features an area dedicated to details, keeping video front and center to minimize distractions.
- YouTube’s changes may be aimed at driving more users to subscribe to Premium, offering benefits such as ad-free viewing and offline downloads.
While YouTube may be at the top of the food chain in terms of video streaming platforms, the Google-owned service still faces some good competition. Many video-based apps and services are finding ways to differentiate themselves through user interface. Now, YouTube is shifting its focus to improving its user interface, apparently with the goal of keeping viewers glued to their big screens.
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YouTube has announced which is tweaking its app on TV streaming devices like Roku and Chromecast to reduce distractions while watching videos. It is making the changes based on feedback from users, who suggested it could benefit from prioritizing “simplicity” rather than more controls.
In the revised app, you’ll notice that the video you’re watching is still front and center and the playback controls you’re used to haven’t changed. However, when you click the up arrow on the video title and subtitle, you’ll see a new user interface that makes the details much easier to digest: the video will now shrink to better accommodate comments, description and other details in a dedicated area. . In the outgoing UI, this same information was visible in an overlay that obscured the right side of the video, and YouTube has said its goal here is to keep people interested in the content they’re streaming and minimize distractions.
YouTube wants to keep users engaged as it looks to add Premium subscribers
It remains to be seen whether viewers will praise these modifications on the streaming app. However, YouTube may be making such changes in hopes of getting more existing users to subscribe to its premium service. Recently, Google geographically expanded the availability of YouTube Premium (its paid subscription service) to countries such as Uganda, Morocco and Jamaica. One of the biggest advantages of YouTube Premium is that members can avoid intrusive ads while watching videos. Other benefits include the option to download content for offline viewing and support for background playback.
If these aren’t enough reasons to start paying for the video streaming service, perhaps a bundle will appeal to you. In 2023, Google began looking for ways to combine its various products and services to create a single subscription: Google One and Nest Aware were turned to combine them into one package, for example. We’ve since seen this launch for UK users, and access to Fitbit Premium was included as icing on the cake, but such bundles have yet to reach customers in the US.