YouTube gets a redesign with a new logo and vertical videos
YouTube's making a few updates to its desktop and mobile versions.
- She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University.
YouTube is tweaking the way it works and looks again.
YouTube might look different starting Tuesday.
The site is rolling out a handful of updates to the way YouTube not only looks but works, Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan said in a post. Many of the changes build on recent updates.
"Over the last few months we've started releasing updates and will continue to throughout the rest of the year," Mohan said in the post. "When all is said and done, we'll bring a new level of functionality and a more consistent look across our desktop and mobile experiences."
The updates come as YouTube, a unit of Alphabet's Google, presses its lead in online video with a subscription service called Red and a live-TV service called YouTube TV . The service is trying to expand beyond user-created videos and into more professional content, better enabling it to compete with the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, which are all also investing in their own shows and movies.
The differences can be subtle. For instance, users will notice YouTube's header has gone white. And in the effort to introduce more gestures, YouTube is working on one that will let you go between videos by swiping left and right.
While the desktop already lets you speed up or slow down playback, YouTube is also rolling out that same capability to mobile.
Plus, YouTube will now adjust to fit the video format you're watching. So if the video is vertical, the player will become vertical. That feature comes as more viewers -- typically younger ones -- are comfortable with watching vertical video thanks to services like Snapchat and Instagram.
And on the heels of introducing a new feature that shows you a row of suggested videos while in full screen, YouTube is working on other ways to let you browse video in the space below the player.
Mobile's not the only aspect of YouTube to get new features as of Tuesday. YouTube now offers a Dark Theme on desktop that lets you make the background dark. Even the YouTube logo is getting a bit of a revamp, with a red and white play button in front of the name. You'll catch that change on the desktop Tuesday and on other apps and services soon.
"When room is limited (say on a smartphone) you can use the brightened up icon as an abbreviated logo, which will be seen more easily and read more clearly," Mohan said.
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