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Redesigned YouTube App for iOS Briefly Appears for Some Users

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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MacRumors has received multiple tips from users that claim a redesigned version of YouTube for iOS briefly appeared on iPhone last week before reverting back to the current design. One tipster sent us a gallery of screenshots showing off the possible redesign, which is speculated to be in the works for both iOS and Android alongside a new web-based video player that is currently in testing.

YouTube-for-iOS-Redesign.png

While we cannot verify the authenticity of these photos, and were unable to witness the redesigned version of YouTube firsthand, the possible redesign appears consistent with the appearance of other Material Design apps on iOS and Android. Specifically, the screenshots show that the app will gain a cleaner look, red header and new bottom menu with options for home, trending videos, all videos and user profiles.

YouTube-Desktop-Redesign.png

The unofficial Google Operating System blog reported over the weekend that YouTube is also testing a new HTML5 desktop video player for Mac and PC with a transparent control bar that automatically hides until you hover over it. It would seem logical that an updated version of YouTube for iOS and Android may also be in development at Google, although an exact timeframe for a release date remains unknown.

Article Link: Redesigned YouTube App for iOS Briefly Appears for Some Users
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/13/youtube-for-ios-redesign-screenshots/
Z

Zxxv

macrumors 68040
Nov 13, 2011
3,558
1,104
UK
we are in the era of developers ****ing apps up so bad the user experience is crud and the look is horrific. Who got hired and who got fired?
 
LukasValine

LukasValine

macrumors regular
Nov 5, 2013
158
706
I personally think the current YouTube controls are hideous. The transparent controls would be a welcome change.
 
nutmac

nutmac

macrumors 603
Mar 30, 2004
5,890
6,788
I just want one feature: one iPad, make full screen playback a default (or at least via setting).
 
Traverse

Traverse

macrumors 604
Mar 11, 2013
7,659
4,346
Here
I hate the official youtube app.

You can't play it in the background or when the device screen is off and every time I try to load YouTube in Safari for those features, it opens the official app without fail. I always end up deleting it.
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
They need to do SOMETHING.

The current weird gesture system is confusing and non-functional. You can't even go Back and Forward through your recent views.

And if you leave the (current) app, it almost never resumes where you were.
 
K

KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,339
3,365
I find it difficult to believe that this is genuine. It looks nothing like the current YouTube app or even Google’s other apps with Material Design. My guess is that they accidentally pushed a botched or early version that due to some oversight looked different on some devices and they corrected that mistake before it spread.

nagromme said:
They need to do SOMETHING.

The current weird gesture system is confusing and non-functional. You can't even go Back and Forward through your recent views.

And if you leave the (current) app, it almost never resumes where you were.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Terrible user experience. It is one of the worst apps on my iPhone that I wish would be revamped. Switching to the browser doesn’t help, since it’s the same only in green.
 
Casiotone

Casiotone

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2008
825
111
Traverse said:
I hate the official youtube app.

You can't play it in the background or when the device screen is off and every time I try to load YouTube in Safari for those features, it opens the official app without fail. I always end up deleting it.
Click to expand...

The fact that it can't play in the background is intentional. The younger generation started to use YT as a free music player and Google decided to put an end to that.
 
Cloudsurfer

Cloudsurfer

macrumors 65816
Apr 12, 2007
1,315
370
Netherlands
Traverse said:
I hate the official youtube app.

You can't play it in the background or when the device screen is off and every time I try to load YouTube in Safari for those features, it opens the official app without fail. I always end up deleting it.
Click to expand...

This is the exact reason why I use VideoTube. It's a buggy app, but much simpler and straight-forward in use.

Plus, VT doesn't have ads. I hate ads.
 
Casiotone

Casiotone

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2008
825
111
nagromme said:
They need to do SOMETHING.

The current weird gesture system is confusing and non-functional. You can't even go Back and Forward through your recent views.

And if you leave the (current) app, it almost never resumes where you were.
Click to expand...

The interface is crap indeed. If you happen to tap on a suggested video by mistake while watching one, there's no way to go back to the video you're watching unless you go in the history (which I have turned off for privacy reasons).

And yes, if the YT app is purged from memory it doesn't go back to where it was when you re-open it, something that is heavily recommended by Apple's guidelines and is something that almost every single built-in Apple app does.

If you force quit the Twitter app for example (which some people hate for various reasons) and reopen it, you'll be quickly back exactly where you were.

The YT app doesn't do that and will restart from its annoying suggested video tab instead of where you were, it's almost like Google would like to give a bad impression of the iOS experience (justifying those who complain about the lack of RAM in iOS devices).
 
N

numlock

macrumors 68000
Mar 13, 2006
1,590
88
nagromme said:
They need to do SOMETHING.

The current weird gesture system is confusing and non-functional. You can't even go Back and Forward through your recent views.

And if you leave the (current) app, it almost never resumes where you were.
Click to expand...

true its absolutely pathetic. i pray when i open links in safari it dosent open the app because you cant go back and forward

in addition to the fact that airplay dosent seem to work for from the youtube app. am i alone there?
 
Last edited:
JaJaWa

JaJaWa

macrumors 6502
Feb 16, 2013
291
120
Hong Kong | London
It's web interface looked a bit like that for me the other day: http://imgur.com/a/1R3gG.

I would personally recommend Tubex over the YouTube app. Doesn't hijack your links, has a nice icon and interface, and videos load much faster.
 

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macduke

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
12,743
18,823
Central U.S.
Yeah, as much as people (myself included) love to complain about iOS bugs lately, Google's YouTube app sure is buggy. I have trouble with it just stopping and saying an error happened, which conveniently means I have to reload the video and watch another ad. If I go to leave the app and come back, sometimes the video won't pick back up and just show a black screen. Other times I'll pause the video or rewind it a bit, and it will take ages and ages to buffer, and I either have to scrub back and forth a few times until it starts working again or I have to swipe down on my iPad to make it smaller in the corner, and then tap on it and it will start playing again immediately (works about 2/3 of the time). What's also annoying is that unlike other video players on iOS (such as the built-in one), YouTube doesn't buffer ahead but a short period of time, even on WiFi! So if your home internet connection ever dips for some reason, even if you've been watching a show for 30 minutes only a couple minutes are buffered—even on a 100mbps line! When I watch other videos the bar get filled almost immediately most of the time, so their software definitely sucks. I thought they were supposed to be good at delivering services?

This makes me wonder if the internet in general will reach some critical mass and stop expanding so quickly. Once most people are using it, you'll only need to expand infrastructure as fast as the population growth. Then companies should hopefully mature and have adequate servers to handle everything. Although by then we'll be streaming 8K or 16K to wall sized TVs so that will need even servers. I guess it will always be saturated but at least one growth metric—population—will hopefully help things even out.
 
A

anek007

macrumors regular
Jul 30, 2014
187
185
Traverse said:
I hate the official youtube app.

You can't play it in the background or when the device screen is off and every time I try to load YouTube in Safari for those features, it opens the official app without fail. I always end up deleting it.
Click to expand...

A video app requiring you to have the video playing. How absurd.
 
Douglas B

Douglas B

macrumors regular
Feb 25, 2010
154
151
Sydney
Link for the parrot video - why wasn't this in the article?

http://youtu.be/ozgcKw4MyvY
 
Last edited:
Traverse

Traverse

macrumors 604
Mar 11, 2013
7,659
4,346
Here
anek007 said:
A video app requiring you to have the video playing. How absurd.
Click to expand...

KALLT said:
A video site that is heavily used for audio streaming is also absurd. ;)
Click to expand...

Like KALLT said.

I have stations from indie music artists that post their music + album art on iTunes. I listen to it until I have the iTunes credit to buy their album (if available). 90% of my YouTube use on iOS or OS X is for music.
 
M

Manatlt

macrumors 6502a
Aug 26, 2013
937
363
London, UK
Have you guys forgotten about YouTube music key? A subscription that includes a feature that lets you play YouTube videos on the background?

It was intentional by Google to block videos playing in the background. So we can pay up.
 
K

Karma*Police

macrumors 68020
Jul 15, 2012
2,415
2,513
I think the YouTube app (and most other a google apps, for that matter) are hideous. I just go to YouTube.com to watch YouTube videos.
 
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