YouTube unveils revamped TV interface: Here’s what’s new in the updated design

YouTube has launched a redesigned TV interface featuring cleaner controls, easier navigation, and improved playback tools, enhancing the overall big-screen viewing experience for smart TV users worldwide.

YouTube has updated its smart TV user interface in order to provide the streamlined navigation, less on-screen clutter and the remote-friendly controls that the company says better aligns with other traditional TV streaming services. The new YouTube TV experience is now being rolled out on the device-agnostic platform and is one of the more significant UI refreshes the platform has made in recent memory.

Functionality-First Changes

The updated UI does not alter the design identity of YouTube’s TV presence to a great degree but rather focuses on making the video-streaming service better aligned for users watching from the couch. In a release, Google notes that it is not seeking to overly clutter the updated TV app interface but instead make the most frequently-used controls and functions more easily accessed via remote.

Immediate changes will be readily noticeable as the video title has been moved to the top-left corner of the screen. However, users will no longer be able to click on the title as it has been made non-clickable in order to give the video more room. In a corresponding move, YouTube has replaced the linkable title with a dedicated “Description” button. Pressing this will access a slide-out panel showing the video description, the creator’s information, as well as comments.

Play Controls Become More Accessible

The playback controls have also been rearranged into three groups under the scrubber bar to make it easier to navigate with a remote:

Left Side: Channel name, Description button, and Subscribe

Center: Previous, Play/Pause, and Next

Right Side: Options to Like/Dislike, Comment, Save, Turn Captions On/Off, and Settings

This reorganization is designed to make it faster and easier to access functions without having to hunt through menus.

Several other UI additions and alterations improve the overall user experience for YouTube TV watchers as well. The Subscribe button, for example, is now always present and available on screen as it now dynamically updates pay-gated video labels as well as “Notify Me” reminders for live streams. The Multiview toggle can also be used in select scenarios to swap between multiple active live streams for sports or other content. YouTube Premium and YouTube Music subscribers will also find a new Display Mode option that provides more customizability for visual preferences across different types of content.

Thoughts on the Updated UI

Industry analysts have noted that YouTube’s latest UI refresh is consistent with a general movement on the platform to both simplify and align its app and experience across platforms with changing viewer expectations, hoping to stay relevant in the face of more specialized streaming competitors like Netflix and Disney+. Other parts of the platform have seen similar UI improvements in recent months, including updates to mobile and web which saw several updates to button styles and controls.

Where available, the YouTube UI redesign is now in a limited launch on several smart TV platforms including Google TV streaming devices and Apple TV. Google has yet to announce any official plans for the UI but the phased rollout is likely already in progress for some users with a broader deployment likely coming soon for other devices.