YouTube has been dabbling with minor improvements for its TV app, most notably reducing the amount of overlap when you’re watching a video and interacting with it.
The company announced a small update for the platform on Wednesday in a blog post, which aims to improve functionality with a bump to the left. If you’re watching a YouTube clip on your TV and want to pull up the video description or comments, YouTube will now push the still-playing clip to the side and bring up the info beside it, rather than on top.
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“We began tinkering with the idea of reducing the size of the video player and simplifying the interactions, so signature features such as comments can live alongside the content rather than obscuring it,” wrote YouTube on TV interaction designer Joe Hines and product manager Aishwarya Agarwal in the post.
“During testing, users shared with us that they wanted the video to be smaller so they could better read comments while watching. And we hope this design enables users to engage more deeply with other features such as chapters, key plays and shopping, all directly on their TVs.”
Yes, essentially YouTube is just moving the video over a squanch, but it sure looks cleaner while making it easier for creators to sell you things while you’re watching. YouTube seems particularly focused on this being an improved experience for sports fans looking to bring up live scores alongside their streams, while also benefiting creators who make their videos shoppable, with the list of products available to buy sitting beside the video. Hines and Agarwal said the team will be working on extending the layout to accommodate videos with live chat, Fantasy View, and Multiview down the line.
The feature will roll out “over the next few weeks” on the YouTube app on TV and “in the next few days” will come to YouTube TV subscribers.
