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I opened the app last night not realizing it had been updated. What an absolute pile of s**t. They took the same exact app that they use for smart TVs/Blu-ray Players and ported it over to Apple TV, thinking that it would work great with the Apple TV remote. Newsflash: it doesn't. Scrubbing through long videos is now very hard to do. No more 10-second rewind/advance by pressing edges of the remote. Very hard to scroll and navigate through the interface.

Why doesn't Apple enforce its tvOS design guidelines when it comes to video players? If we have to keep the clunky navigation interface, fine -- but at least give me the standard tvOS video playback experience with Apple's progress bar and 10-second rewind/advance.
 
Omg, what have they done. They implement the subpar big picture mode. It’s no longer following tvOS ui standards. It feels out of place and is a subpar experience with the atv remote. Good luck getting to a subscribers channel with the single massive horizontal scroll line of horror.

Yes, the prior app lacked features, but they should have built on that instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water and giving us this lazy junk.

1 atv4 for sale....1 YouTube red sub cancelled

Totally agree. Family has been using apple tv for Youtube along with Netflix etc. for ages. The new app UI is a massive step backwards in terms of ease of use, functionality and consistency using the remote. Will have to look for some other device with a UI made by professionals. Absolutely awful amateurish nonsense.
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It’s almost as if Apple is sending TVOS out to die. The speed, response, consistent and predictable behaviour of Apps made it uniquely an Apple device. Allowing any and all shoveleware just makes it no different to any other box, but sold a a premium. RIP AppleTV.
Agree. Family has been using Apple TV for ages due to consistent Netflix, Youtube and Plex. This sluggish, inconsistent pile of garbage is impossible to operate without constantly looking at the screen. Yes, we needed a 'like' button (how rude not to like something to have enjoyed watching) but to release an update that practically forces me to find something else is unbelievable.
 
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Other than the UX being way overblown so you have so few videos, subscribed channels and whatnot displayed at once and it not following any kind of tvOS guidelines or logic its not the biggest problem. Icons, thumbnails and everything is just so stupidly large for no apparent reason. It feels so cluttered. The lack of 4K isn't really the problem here, but considering Google changed to their own video-player its somewhat awkward for them to not included embedded support for VP9 and they even mislead users by marking videos as 4K? Just goes to show that its a wrapper for YouTube.com/TV without any kind of optimisation towards the platform at all.

The problem is the fact that the app is not a native tvOS-app anymore. Its just a wrapper for Google's YouTube HTML-app. Its no longer a local app running on the Apple TV, you can verify this by going into settings and you can see that the app now features its very own version number being maintained and updated through the HTML-app and not the app itself. Its the exact same as on Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, LG WebOS etc..

This is such a lazy approach, and something Apple doesn't allow on the AppStore for iOS and macOS so I'm wondering if they are even within the rules of tvOS or if the update is simply breaking the rules?


Sure I can live with the UX-change and everything. But the problem with "one-web-app-fits-all" like this is that you get ZERO platform specific optimisation. Which is clearly demonstrated by this new app as we no longer have support for the Siri Remote, its just emulating clicks and not actually supporting the Siri Remote's touchpad and it behaves, feel and navigates horribly in comparison with the previous version that actually integrated with tvOS specific API's.

Same goes for the video-player, its now using Google's own YouTube HTML-player instead of the native tvOS-player. What does this mean? No more intuitive swipe scrubbing, no more support for automatic frame rate and dynamic range switcing etc which we had previously. We have lost ALL tvOS specific features and they won't come back.

It even breaks Apple rules for ads, as its now just a window for YouTube.com/TV Google is capable of displaying ads in whatever way they see fit. So instead of being limited to the one ad before playback like they are on tvOS they have now filled videos with ads before playback, during playback and everything and its the worst kind of ads, its the most intrusive kind which pop-ups out of nowhere right in the middle of the screen with uneven audio levels so some ads have way higher volume levels compared to the video.. Its horrible and something Apple has never allowed developers to do before.



How does such a inferior experience make the Apple TV more complete? Sure the previous version was really lacklustre and lacked a lot of YouTube features. But at least it was somewhat optimised for the platform and behaved like one would expect a tvOS-app to work. This is just hot garbage in comparison.

And what features did it really bring? We still don't have access to comments, we still lack the capability of adding videos to playlists and watch-later. The only thing we got besides loosing shuffle, loosing automatic frame rate and dynamic range switching, loosing any kind of Siri Remote integration etc.. Is the capability of like/dislike and see and click embedded links in videos. That's pretty much it.

You make some really good points. I understand wanting an iOS exclusive version instead of a one size fits all solution. Unfortunately since Google is so powerful that Apple will let them get away with things that they wouldn't accept from other companies. After having spent more time with it one thing that bothers me is that we've lost the quick 10 second rewind/fast-foward from the previous version and really a feature that is available in every tvOS app when dealing with pre-recorded video. I also think they can make improvements by displaying the letters vertically like on the PS4 instead of having to scroll back and forth horizontally to enter text when I don't feel like using Siri.

However the old UI was incredibly dated. It displayed less information. It also limited search results. While they were displayed vertically which was nice, we now can scroll for much longer without having to modify our search until we get to the content we're looking for. It was frustrating to have to play a video to see how old it was. We still have to play it to get the specific date though. Also this change means that we will most likely get updates to the app a lot more often than before.

I've used iOS since the beginning and I remember how cool using the native iOS YT app was with no adds which was finally killed in iOS 6. However we received a superior experience in exchange except for the ads. I say we should give it time. Youtube on the ATV and streaming devices in general won't stay in its current form. It will continue to evolve. While I doubt it will ever get the full experience from the web with live comments or the ability to comment, I have faith it will get better. Comments would require using the Siri remote app on an iPhone or iPad. While users should be given a choice of what "remote" they prefer using, I think Apple would really prefer that people exclusively use the actual Siri Remote which would make comments really tedious unless they would provide a way to use Siri dictation for them. That's not the best solution since people make mistakes and the Siri on the ATV is just not as good as the one on iOS 11.
 
Totally agree. Family has been using apple tv for Youtube along with Netflix etc. for ages. The new app UI is a massive step backwards in terms of ease of use, functionality and consistency using the remote. Will have to look for some other device with a UI made by professionals. Absolutely awful amateurish nonsense.
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Agree. Family has been using Apple TV for ages due to consistent Netflix, Youtube and Plex. This sluggish, inconsistent pile of garbage is impossible to operate without constantly looking at the screen. Yes, we needed a 'like' button (how rude not to like something to have enjoyed watching) but to release an update that practically forces me to find something else is unbelievable.

Won't matter what platform device you use it on ... I have a Sony with Android TV OS and the YouTube App looks and works identically to the Apple TV app.
 
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This is such an opportunity for a highly polished 3rd party YouTube app.

Is there anything at all preventing such a move? From my understanding google has only taken down iOS apps such as Protube because they allowed features beyond basic YouTube functionality and reached into the YouTube Red paywall functions. E.g background playback, saving for offline.

But if the app sticks to the fundamental basics, can it happen?
 
This new YouTube app makes me feel like I'm navigating zoomed-in like 4x.
I could see a whole page of videos and scroll around, now I can only see about 3 1/2 videos with descriptions at a time. Wish there was a way to scale it to make more thumbnails available.

Looking at my subscriptions I see like three HUGE circle icons at a time and it takes a long time to go left/right to get to a channel.

Very fast scrolling and moving around vs. old app. Don't understand how people think its sluggish here when the old one was actually pretty sluggish.

But Google, please fix it so you are displaying more on screen at once.
 
The new Youtube app updated automatically as soon as I clicked the old Youtube icon on my 4th generation Apple TV. It is more feature-rich but sluggish :(
 
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If all they do for is increase the scrolling speed that would be a major improvement. Its painfully slow to scrolling between videos or subscriptions.
 
You can easily tell which commenters have more than 10 subscriptions. I eventually left my amazon firetv box because of how YouTube’s firetv app handled subscriptions. I went from 100+ subscribed channels to less than 50 so i could use the app without just giving up but I eventually did. Sadly, most of my favorite channels begin with R, S, T or W and now appletv’s version is this unusable pile. It literally takes 17 swipes to get to S in my list. Watch a new video or two, click back to subscriptions, and you’re back at the #s and A! Swipe swipe swiping all the way back to the other end of the alphabet.

You’d better like swiping. F this UI.

Seriously, GO LEAVE FEEDBACK!
 
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I have playlists I made and need to play different videos at different times to groups of people. I used to be taken to the list and I could scroll down to the one I want. Now as soon as I select a playlist it starts immediately playing the first video in the playlist. That makes it all but unusable for me and it looks like I need to revert to Air Playing it from my iPad again (which doesn't have that problem). I've switched off auto-play on the app, of course, but it doesn't work. Does anyone know how to solve this problem?
 



The YouTube app for the Apple TV received a complete design overhaul today, introducing a new interface that's similar in design to the YouTube app for iOS, YouTube on the desktop, and the YouTube app for other television platforms.

appletvyoutuberevamp-800x498.jpg

Rather than a single navigation bar at the top that links to sections like Search, Home, and Subscriptions, there's a new universal search bar that's easier to access along with dedicated categories like Recommended, Entertainment, Food, Music, Gaming, Technology, Comedy, and more, which makes it easier to find new content relevant to your interests.

youtuberecommendedinterface-800x469.jpg

A navigation bar on the left side of the screen provides access to your subscriptions, library, and viewing history, and there's a new, more detailed settings section.

youtubeappletvsidebar-800x469.jpg

While today's update lists 4K videos as "4K" in the video app, it does not appear that YouTube is supporting 4K content on the Apple TV at this time. When viewing details about a video, maximum available resolution is still listed as 1920 x 1080.

youtubeappletvplaybackstats-800x469.jpg

Today's revamped YouTube Apple TV app comes just a few days after YouTube officially introduced its separate YouTube TV app for the Apple TV, allowing YouTube TV subscribers to access live content.

The new YouTube app for Apple TV is available now, and it can be installed by going to the YouTube app in the App Store and choosing "update" if it does not update automatically.

Article Link: YouTube App for Apple TV Receives Major Redesign
[doublepost=1518341049][/doublepost]Did you actually use the app on an Apple TV or did you just look at some pictures from Google.

This app is an abortion gone wrong.

Your review makes you look like a Google shill.

Go back. Actually use the app through an Apple TV box. Then come here and tell the truth.
 
How can I roll back the automatic update? This new app is an utter abortion.

It's buggy, the performance is terrible and it's dumb as nuts regarding remote support. I bought the Apple TV to escape the terrible app on my "Smart" TV!
 
Finally, I have been long hoping for this one to happen. I always hated the custom-designed version of the YouTube app for Apple TV. Always thought the universal YouTube app found on every Smart TV, console and blu-ray player looked way better and had better UI. They finally aligned the Apple TV version with the main one found everywhere.
It's all unified now.
 
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More like Apple still hasn't enabled 4k for YouTube since they refuse to support the royalty free VP9 codec, supporting only HEVC since they make money liscening it out to streaming services. Yet another example of the Apple Tax hard at work.

Yet another example of how all corporations look out for number one: their own stockholders.
 
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App refresh deserves no compliment... Looks kinda OK, but usability is just terrible. Feels like a clunky Samsung SmartTV app or something out of Android 3. Touching the remote trackpad will either pause or push the video forward or backward even without pressing it and the Play/Pause button only pauses, but do not resume play after. Google is incredible with any sort of information gathering and analysis, but software/app development sucks... always buggy...
 
Finally, I have been long hoping for this one to happen. I always hated the custom-designed version of the YouTube app for Apple TV. Always thought the universal YouTube app found on every Smart TV, console and blu-ray player looked way better and had better UI. They finally aligned the Apple TV version with the main one found everywhere.
It's all unified now.

Might be unified, but it's unfit for purpose.
 
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I already made one comment on this subject and am not one that is usually in to ranting but .... damn youtube is so much worse now.
I am actively using it less and less per day because of the tv app update.

Getting through my subscriptions is now "easier" and I say that with a lot of reserve, by going to the search bar which takes you to another search bar and voice searching which is a terrible way to do it and I dislike but is easier than the even more terrible way of scrubbing through some of my least watched subscriptions because a person I like happens to have a name near the end of the alphabet.
Can it not order your subs by most watched?
YouTube itself doesn't even put subs in alphabetical order.

The only positive I can get from this is the it looks a little better than the previous but the layout simply is not simple to use anymore.

DoubleYou Tee Eff YouTube AppleTV UI people, DoubleYou Tee Eff.
 
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