YouTube gets a facelift, to allow users to zoom into videos on iOS and Android

Google-owned video streaming platform YouTube is getting a facelift. In a blog post today, the company said that it is adding new tools inspired by feedback from its YouTube creator community and viewers. 

“Starting today, we are rolling out a new look and several features that offer a more modern and immersive viewing experience while also improving how users watch videos. But don’t worry, the same YouTube you know and love is still at our core,” Nate Koechley, UX Director, YouTube, wrote. 

For example, YouTube is adding what it calls as ‘ambient mode’, a feature the company said has been “received with much excitement during the testing phase”.

At the same time, YouTube is also refining the dark mode in a way that will make the app look even dark not only on the web, but also on mobile and smart TVs.  

Other changes include a pinch-to-zoom tool, allowing users to zoom in and out of a video on mobile devices while it still plays, and a handful of tweaks coming to the video player. YouTube started testing the pinch-to-zoom feature with Premium users in August, and now it will be on iOS or Android devices. 

Also, YouTube links in video descriptions will change to buttons, and frequent actions, such as like, share and download, are now formatted to minimise distractions. Although the button will no longer be red, Koechley suggested the “high-contrast redesign will help it stand out more on watch pages and channel pages”. 

YouTube begins to roll out these changes today and these should be live for everyone within the next few weeks, said the company. 

Meanwhile, parent company Alphabet reported weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue for the third quarter. YouTube ad revenue slid about 2% to $7.07 billion from $7.21 billion a year ago.