Following the test ran on video chapters in April, YouTube has finally began to roll out new gesture and playback features to its mobile app.
Some of the changes that comes with the update includes the relocation of some controls on the app, and the addition of a couple of new ones.
The features are some of the ways YouTube is clearing towards making video viewing and controlling a tad bit easier and more comfortable for users.
According to a report published by the Verge, the biggest update rolled out to the YouTube mobile app is a new gestures that would change the way videos are taken to full screen and back: instead of tapping the button (or rotating your phone), you’ll now be able to swipe up on the video window to enter full-screen and swipe down to return back to the standard player page.
In order not to confuse the in-app swipe gesture with that of the devices – where swiping up goes home, and down brings down notification tab (on android) – the gestures have been designed to only work on the mobile app interface.
In addition to the swipe gestures added to the app, the video chapter feature that was introduced in April, has gotten a few new tweaks.
While video creators have been allowed to add chapters and timestamps with varied information to their videos, in the new update rolling out, these set is time stamps and created chapters, will now have their own preview, and each preview will have its individual thumbnails.
The thumbnail and preview on each video can be accessed by tapping on the chapter title in the player, users can then jump to the part of the video they want to see by tapping the video chapter in the list.
Users can also switch between how much time is counting down, and how much time of the video has been watched. Toggling this can be done by tapping on the timestamp on the video.
YouTube confirms to TechCrunch that many of the other changes may not be new to some users, however, some users will have to wait till after the announcement before they can get the updated features.
