YouTube is improving the mobile viewing experience for users with the rollout of five new updates.
The updates to YouTube on mobile are designed around making better use of existing features and introducing a few new ones.
Updates include:
- Better use of video chapters
- A more streamlined player page
- New gestures
- Suggested actions
- Bedtime reminders
“With a global community of two billion people on YouTube, we’re always looking for ways to make it easier to watch and interact with your favorite videos.
Check out some of our favorite tips and tricks to get the most out of YouTube, including new updates you can try out starting today.”
Here’s more about the updates that are now available to all users.
Video Chapters
YouTube is extending its video chapters feature to include a new list view, which can be brought up by tapping or clicking the chapter title in the player.
In the new chapter list view users can see a complete list of all chapters in the video they’re currently watching.
Each chapter will have its own thumbnail previewing what’s included in it.
This is a welcome expansion to YouTube video chapters, which is a relatively new feature that was just introduced this past May.
Previously, chapters were only displayed in plain text in a video’s description section.
Now YouTube is taking the information about chapters from the description section and creating a more engaging way to interact with videos.
All creators can utilize YouTube video chapters simply by manually writing timestamps in the description section.
In order to make sure the feature works as shown, include at least three chapters per video with the first one starting at “0:00”.
Also make sure each chapter is at least 10 seconds in length.
Here’s an example of how a three-step how-to video might look when broken down into chapters:
00:00 – Intro
02:30 – Step 1
05:15 – Step 2
07:40 – Step 3
10:15 – Conclusion
It’s worth noting that Google will also display video chapters in a similar fashion when surfacing YouTube videos in search results.
Changes to the YouTube Player
YouTube is streamlining the player page with a few key changes:
- Closed Captions button moved to the top
- Autoplay toggle switch moved to the top
- Small improvements like rearranged buttons
More Gestures
YouTube is making it easier to enter and exit full screen mode. Now users can swipe up to enter full screen mode and swipe down to exit.
And users can quickly toggle between displaying elapsed time and time remaining in a video by tapping the timestamp.
Suggested Actions
YouTube is starting to roll out suggested actions, which prompt users to rotate their phones or play a video in VR.
These suggestions will only be displayed when YouTube thinks it will improve the experience.
This feature will be further expanded on in the future.
Bedtime Reminders
A new digital wellbeing tool will let users set reminders at specific times to stop watching videos and go to bed.
These features are available now on YouTube on mobile.
Source: YouTube Official Blog
