Additionally, YouTube web on mobile now features thumbnails with rounded corners. This change is consistent across the homepage, search results, and video page. On the latter, we now have pill-shaped buttons for like and dislike, Share, Save, and Report. YouTube is showing the like and dislike button, aka thumbs up/down, within the same pill. We also have the like count in this container. Earlier, they were two distinct buttons. The desktop web version of YouTube has even more changes. The background is now darker, switching to black from gray. The search field gets a pill-shaped container while the topics carousel gets a similar Material You makeover as on mobile. Rounded corners for thumbnails apply to the desktop web client as well. Shorts, meanwhile, get a separate box within the main home feed. A faint gray box separates these videos from the rest. These changes to the YouTube web version make Google’s video platform visually more consistent across platforms. The company is going for the same overall look on mobile apps and web clients. Perhaps the Material You tweaks make YouTube follow a similar design pattern as other Google apps. This is a shift from the platform’s long history of having its own distinct design language. The changes don’t make it bad, so we are up for it.
YouTube Music is also getting similar a Material You makeover
It’s not just YouTube’s video app that is getting this Material You design overhaul. The company is also updating the UI on its music app, i. e. YouTube Music, similarly. However, the changes are only appearing for very few users currently. Google is likely still testing the redesign before a public rollout, which could arrive soon. Keep your YouTube and YouTube Music apps updated to get the changes as soon as they are released widely. We will let you know if and when Googe officially announces this UI redesign for YouTube platforms.