Earlier this week, Google released version 14.31.50 for its YouTube Android app. The update mainly brought features catered toward the YouTube Gaming community. However, as spotted by the folks over at 9to5Google, it looks like the tech giant is testing some UI changes for devices running the latest stable release.
It looks like the "Up Next" UI which displays upon the finishing of a video (and if autoplay is enabled) is being revamped. Previously, a circular indicator was featured around a play button, allowing for eight seconds before the next video in the list began playing. Users could click to cancel the countdown or press the play button to continue immediately. Meanwhile, the next video"s title and channel name was displayed on the top left.
Now, however, the shrinking circle has been replaced with an actual count, swapping places with the video information in the upper left corner. The center of the screen is largely covered by the thumbnail of the upcoming video, as can be observed in the image on the right, along with the associated information. The "Play Now" and "Cancel" buttons have been made much larger and less flashy in the form of rectangular boxes below the video. There"s also an "X" in the top right corner, which, as expected, serves exactly the same purpose as cancel.
The devices we have tested running the latest version of the app on Android all feature the new UI. However, 9to5Google has noted that this isn"t the case with all phones. It is unclear whether similar tests are being carries out on iOS devices, and whether a larger rollout is planned. In case you haven"t turned on auto-update in Play Store, you can download the latest version here to check whether the revamped UI is featured in your device.
Update: It looks like the test is being carried out on some iOS devices as well. If you"re an iOS user, you can download YouTube here from the App Store.