Today, Google began rolling out the first Android 15 update for Pixel phones. The company was also working on several improvements for some key services, like YouTube. The YouTube team has announced the many improvements that the video platform is receiving right now.
More granular playback speed control; UI redesigned and PiP mini player
Have you ever wanted to adjust the playback speed of a video on YouTube, but none of the available options met your needs? That will soon be over thanks to more granular playback speed controls. Now, users will be able to set speed increments of 0.05. The platform is also getting UI tweaks designed to improve horizontal navigation by adjusting the size of text and thumbnails.
A few weeks ago, a leak showed a PiP mini player for the YouTube mobile app. Now the miniplayer is official, allowing you to resize and move the playing video in a small window. This will allow you to continue enjoying the video while you explore the platform’s content or menus.
YouTube Playlists becoming more social with new collaborative features
The company is adding an additional social component to playlists. Users can now invite others via a special link or a QR code, and, in the future, invited users will be able to vote to choose the best videos from the playlist. This will be especially useful for creators to get feedback on what their audience’s favorite videos are on a specific topic.
Continuing with the improvements in this section, people will be able to customize their playlists with custom thumbnails, either using their own photos or AI-generated images. If you choose an image, YouTube will offer you a series of text fonts, filters, and stickers.
New Sleep Timer and badges
For those who fall asleep while watching videos on YouTube, there’s also a new “Sleep Timer” feature. It allows you to set a timer to automatically pause videos after a certain period of time. The feature was available to Premium subscribers earlier this year and will now be available to everyone.
YouTube and YouTube Music are getting badges to recognize users’ interaction with their favorite channels or the platform itself. For example, you could receive a badge for being the first subscriber to a channel or for answering a YouTube survey.
The improvements and new features will be available on the YouTube mobile app, YouTube web, YouTube app for TV, and YouTube Music.
