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YouTube has witnessed a number of upgrades since its launch in 2005, but after its 17th birthday earlier this year, the company decided to further refine its look and unveil two of the updates that could change the way you use YouTube.
After multiple requests, YouTube has finally introduced the ability to: zoom in and out on a video. What’s better is that releasing the screen doesn’t automatically zoom out the video. This means you can enjoy a zoomed-in video without having to keep your fingers on your screen the entire video.
Accurate search is also a potential game-changer. Available for both web and mobile, this feature allows you to view some thumbnails of your video in the video player. This is especially useful if you want to find a specific part of your video.
A facelift
These powerful video tools may overshadow the work YouTube has done to refresh the interface.
YouTube’s UX director Nate Koechley has a blog today outlining the makeover of the platform.
The changes start with Ambient mode. Using dynamic color sampling, the mode subtly adds the overall color of the video you are watching to the app background. The goal is to increase focus and draw the user’s attention to their device. Ambient Mode also helps add vibrancy to the screen without turning it into a distraction. It is available on both web and mobile and can be turned on by turning on dark theme.
Dark theme also saw an upgrade in terms of shade. It’s now darker than before in an effort to make your video stand out even more. This feature is coming to the web, mobile, and even Smart TVs.
The video player is also getting an upgrade meant to cut down on some of the clutter. YouTube links in video descriptions that look quite messy at the moment and will be transformed everywhere to look like buttons. The current like, share, and download buttons will be reformatted to give them a cleaner look. In addition, the large red subscribe button gets a new level of colour, shape and contrast. Again, the goal is for it to stand out more than it already does.
After you check out the update, you may want to learn how to upload your own YouTube content. Start with this guide.