YouTube is testing infinite scroll for long-form videos. This change, spotted in the YouTube app, could alter or even destroy an important gesture navigation for smartphone users.
YouTube app goes into infinite scroll mode for long-form videos
YouTube is by far the biggest crowd-sourced video-sharing platform. Hence, even the smallest of changes, or bugs, make a huge impact on users.
There have been some drastic changes to the way users can access or watch YouTube videos in the past year. In its constant battle with ad-blockers, YouTube even made some serious alterations that viewers didn’t like.
Some users have now spotted a small but important change to the YouTube app. YouTube is reportedly testing continuous scrolling for long-form videos.
Several users have indicated that the change interferes with one of the key gestures that have made the YouTube app very popular. Specifically speaking, scrolling down to see the notification shade is now essentially broken.
Longer YouTube videos too going the YouTube Short’s route?
As spotted by Tushar Mehta on X (formerly Twitter), YouTube seems to be testing continuous scrolling for long-form videos. Currently, the change is noticeable in the full-screen video player.
Needless to say, this behavior is observable when watching YouTube Shorts. YouTube seems to be testing the new method, as the change hasn’t trickled into the stable version of the YouTube app.
To summarize, YouTube may introduce a scroll gesture for the full-screen video player for long-form videos. Currently, the swipe-up and down gestures allow users to enter and exit the full-screen video player respectively. However, moving forward, when YouTube app users swipe down on a full-screen long-form video, the app may play the next video.
It is not clear if YouTube will deploy this feature. However, during the testing phase, if the device is in landscape orientation while a video is playing in full-screen, users are not able to minimize the video player with a swipe gesture. Needless to say, this gesture has been available for several years. But YouTube may change the behavior of the gesture.
