YouTube for Android is being tested with a new interface change designed to give viewers more information when they skip through videos. Google frequently experiments with the layouts of its apps in search of quality of life improvements, and its streaming video app is now part of that process.
On both Android and iOS, double-tapping the right side of a YouTube video moves the stream ahead by 10 seconds, or by a time period you choose. Double-tapping the left side moves the stream backwards by the same interval. The catch with the current design is that double-tapping does not display how much time you have actually skipped.
How to customise the double-tap seek interval
The feature to adjust the skip length is available across both platforms. On Android, open the YouTube app and tap your profile icon at the bottom right of the screen. Then tap the Settings gear icon in the top right, followed by General, then Double-tap to seek, and choose your interval from 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, or 60 seconds.
On iOS, open YouTube and tap your profile icon at the bottom right of the screen. Then tap the Settings gear icon in the top right, followed by Playback, then Skip forward and back, and choose your interval from the same range of options.
By contrast, the scrub bar already shows this detail. If you press and hold the scrub bar to move forwards or backwards, the amount of time skipped appears on screen. Double-tapping, which is arguably easier than dragging the scrub bar, has until now lacked that visual feedback.
What the new YouTube UI adds
The updated interface addresses that gap. With the change, double-tapping on either side of the screen brings up the scrub bar alongside a red lozenge that displays how many seconds you have skipped, shown in white. This gives users who prefer the double-tap gesture the same information previously reserved for the scrub bar method.
The updated UI is being tested on the stable version 21.33 of YouTube for Android. Although it appears within the stable release rather than a beta, the test has been limited to selected Pixel and Galaxy models, so not every eligible device has received it yet.
The test is currently restricted to certain Android phones. Should Google make the update permanent for Android, the iOS YouTube app is expected to receive the same feature in due course.
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Image: phonearena.com
