YouTube brought a revolution to the video streaming/sharing world when it first came out in 2005. As a matter of fact, YouTube has a reach of 1.5 billion people every month now. YouTube recently underwent an exquisite transformation of all time. This service has got a brand new logo after 12 years, a new colour-scheme, all new typeface, changes in feel and functionalities in both desktop and app versions. Christopher Bettig, the head of YouTube’s art department said, “It’s an evolution, not a revolution”. He further added, “We had the word tube in a tube”. If you didn’t get it, read the fun fact below.
Fun Fact: YouTube got its name from the words “You” and “Tube”. However, “You” literates to a person who personalizes it for their own and “Tube” came from Television as they used to have vacuum picture tubes in them initially. Basically, the website’s name stands for “Your video sharing site”.
YouTube has been experimenting with several different apps and this change is binding everything together. There are on-going changes that YouTube has been trying to bring for their users from a very long time. In fact, YT started off as a website but is available in app format on smartphones, tabs, desktop, game-consoles and televisions. When YouTube launched the redesigned versions of their services two years ago, the challenge of getting a proper control over everything emerged simultaneously. But what’s new?
New Features Offered By YouTube
1. The mobile version of the app has been redesigned completely for a fresh feel. The majority of red colour used previously on the header has been replaced with white. There’re five different tabs on the front-page of the app namely – Home, Trending, Subscriptions, Shared and the all new Library tab.
2. YouTube is also going to add the adaptive display mode. It will focus on the origin of the video. If its horizontal, the app will adjust the display to provide you the best viewing experience. Same goes with landscape and square modes.
This is how our YouTube channel looks on the updated YouTube app
3. We’ve already seen the introduction of gestures in the app version. Double-tapping on either sides of the screen while playing a video will fast-forward or rewind the video to 10 seconds. YouTube has already introduced the swipe-up feature in full screen mode which enables you to watch suggested video. In addition, YouTube is going to introduce more swipes very soon as well. This will allow you to shift from one video to another through one swipe of your finger.
4. YouTube also added the playback speed adjuster to the mobile version of the service. You can speed-up or slow the video down.
YouTube also introduced a new design for the desktop version of their site. It’s simple, attractive and different for the user’s eye and has been introduced to increase efficiency. This material design is a gift from YouTube to its users. In fact, they’ve added a new feature for the cinematic mode of watching videos. We all know what cinematic mode is. It has been there for years now but this time they’ve introduced a theme switch for that mode. If you’re watching a video in cinematic mode, the theme of YouTube’s website will automatically darken itself to provide a more cinematic-vibe.
Sun J’s “Be Aware” playing in the all new dark-cinematic theme.
YouTube TV, YouTube Kids, YouTube Music, YouTube For Artists and YouTube Gaming are all available just a click away from the same page. There’s a hidden dark mode for the YouTube page as well.
However, it is under the testing stage. If you want it right now, here’s what you have to do (at your own risk)
1. Update your Chrome browser.
2. Hit Ctrl + Shift + I on Windows, or Option + Command + I on Mac to go into the developer mode. Select the “Console” tab.
3. Paste document.cookie=”VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=fPQ4jCL6EiE” in the “Console” tab and hit enter. Exit the developer mode.
4. Refresh the page and the mark mode control switch now available under the settings in the top-right corner. Activate it and enjoy.