YouTube on Tuesday added new features to its mobile, web and TV apps, including fine-grained controls for playback speed, a redesigned mini-player, collaborative playlists and badges.
Previously, users had a control to increase playback speed in 0.25x increments. In the latest release, YouTube now allows users to increase or decrease playback speed by 0.05x by tapping the “+” or “-” symbols in the new playback speed control menu.
The company has also made it easy to create collaborative playlists. Playlist links and QR codes can now be shared with others, and users can add their own photos as thumbnails or with prompts using YouTube's gen AI tool Now it looks like this.
Later this year, the company plans to add the ability for collaborators to vote on videos. Creators can also use this feature to get feedback on their videos through playlists.
Image credit: YouTube
YouTube has also made some changes to the design of its mobile app. On Android, video thumbnails and text are now larger and more responsive to player input when you use the app in landscape or landscape mode. These features will be added to the iOS app later this year.
YouTube is also improving the mini-player experience, allowing users to move and resize the player while browsing YouTube.
Image credit: YouTube
The TV app offers more immersive video previews and an improved UI for watching YouTube Shorts on the big screen.
YouTube began testing a sleep timer for paid users in August, and the company is now expanding the feature to all users. Set a timer to automatically pause playback.
YouTube is also adding badges to the YouTube and YouTube Music apps to give content creators new ways to engage with their communities. The first set has two badges called “First Batch of Paid Members” and “Members Who Completed the Quiz Correctly.” The update applies to Community Spaces, which YouTube launched in September to allow users to interact with creators.