If you’ve been on YouTube in the last 24 hours you may have noticed the site as a new logo.
But there’s more than just this cosmetic change as the site, and in particular its app, have both been updated with some tweaks aimed at improving the viewing experience.
The biggest changes come for mobile users, with some neat updates to YouTube’s app.
Perhaps most strikingly, the app now supports full screen vertical video, meaning an end to those black bars at the sides of clips with no need to turn the device sideways.
And according to chief product officer Neal Mohan: “Soon, the YouTube player will seamlessly change shape to match the video format you’re watching, such as vertical, square or horizontal.”
YouTube is also bringing in a series of “gestures”.
One has already been introduced – the ability to skip forward or back 10 seconds with a double tap on the right or left of the screen – while the app will soon support swiping to jump between different videos.
Another improvement to the app sees the ability to speed up or slow down the videos you’re watching, an option already available on desktop.
For desktop, the updates are limited to a number of design tweaks, with the main change the introduction of a so-called Dark Theme, which darkens the background while you watch a video.
The changes, according to Mohan, let “the content shine” and give “a more cinematic look”.
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