YouTube
YouTube is launching a new homepage design today that will include bigger thumbnails, which is a move that frustrated people when the company first tested the refreshed look in August.
Users will see fewer videos on the homepage because of the bigger thumbnails, a YouTube spokesperson confirmed to The Verge. The representative added that people are being presented with more information about each video they’re seeing, though. Allowing videos to have more physical space on the page also gives creators the ability to use longer titles. The goal is to give people using the platform more information about a video from a quick glance, rather than ask that they hover a cursor over a video or click through to learn more.
With the redesign, YouTube’s homepage has fewer featured videos, and certain content “shelves” — categories like “News” or “Music” — are no longer placed on the front page. YouTube’s product team used feedback from creators and viewers during different testing phases to make layout improvements, according to the company. This included fixing several technical issues, with some of the more glaring problems having to do with thumbnail sizes on larger screens and devices.
Although the design changes are the most eye-catching, there are a couple of important feature updates, too. Most importantly is the ability to tell YouTube to stop recommending channels you’re not interested in. This feature was first launched on mobile, and it’s now making its way to desktop.
Videos can also now be “added to queue.” The option has been available on Android, but the YouTube product team is rolling it out to desktop users. People can select a handful of videos to watch without interrupting a current video experience. Those videos won’t be stored in the queue if a browser page is closed.
The updated design will start to roll out today across desktops, as well as the tablet version of YouTube’s Android and iOS apps. It will be available to everyone soon.