YouTube is rolling out new design elements to its app. While this is not a complete aesthetic overhaul, it does provide tweaks to existing components and adds improvements. For example, the ability to pinch-to-zoom is now available for everyone.
This is a handy feature because it means users can pinch on their screen to zoom in on any video just as you would with photos. If you have YouTube Premium, this feature has been available since August but is now graduating to be available to all YouTube users.
Another interesting new ability is precise seeking, which will help users fast forward and rewind to the exact location in the video they want. Anyone who moves through videos a lot will understand how helpful this tool could be.
It works by offering a frame-by-frame view of the video as you scroll through it (similar to Netflix and other streaming services), making it much easier to land exactly where you want.
Color Grading
Another new feature is YouTube finally adding color grading with the new ambient mode:
“After tinkering with several ideas, ambient mode came to life. And when the first design concept was met with overwhelmingly positive reactions from users during testing, we knew we were onto something.
Using dynamic color sampling, ambient mode introduces a subtle effect so the app background color adapts to match the video. We were inspired by the light that screens cast out in a darkened room and wanted to recreate the effect so viewers were drawn right into the content and the video takes an even greater focus on our watch page. This feature will be available on web and mobile in dark theme.”
YouTube has been making useful changes lately, including the recent debut of handles. These provide channels with unique URLs to help make them easier to find.
Tip of the day: With a single registry tweak, it’s possible to add a ‘Take Ownership’ button to the right-click context menu that performs all of the necessary actions for you. You’ll gain full access to all possible actions, including deletion, renaming, and more. All files and subfolders will also be under your name.
The Take Ownership context menu will set the currently active user as the owner of the files, though they must also be an administrator. They can then enter the folder or modify the file as they usually would.
