YouTube rolls out new features to enhance users’ experience

Google-owned YouTube has rolled out a number of new features and design updates to help users get more out of the platform.

The first feature that YouTube rolled out is “stable volume” which will be automatically turned on to reduce jarring differences in volume, for an overall improved watching and listening experience.

For those who enjoy watching videos in double time, the company rolled out the “Press to 2x” update across the web, tablets, and mobile devices.

“When watching a video either in full screen or portrait mode, just press and hold down anywhere on the player to automatically bump your playback speed to 2x,” YouTube said in a blogpost on Tuesday.

To avoid accidental interruptions with lock screen, the company rolled out lock screen update on mobile and tablets so that “you can lock your screen to prevent unwanted interruptions”.

To make it more intuitive to find all your YouTube stuff in one place, the company merged Library tab and account page into a new home called “You tab”, where you can find your previously watched videos, playlists, downloads and purchases, as well as your account-related settings and channel information.

Moreover, the company announced to roll out a new feature that will let you search for a song by playing, singing, and even by ‘humming’.

This feature will roll out in the next few weeks, and will be available on Android devices for now, YouTube said.

Another new feature will connect viewers with creators as now when creators ask viewers to “like” or “subscribe”, a visual cue on those buttons will appear in sync with the video.

Once fans smash that button, a subtle explosion of playful sparkles will reward them.

“For new video uploads, we added a new animation that updates view count and like count in real time for the first 24 hours to show how many other users are engaging with what they’re watching,” YouTubementioned.

These changes will roll out gradually to users globally over the coming weeks.

(With inputs from IANS)