The viewership of YouTube on smart TVs has witnessed a remarkable surge, exceeding an impressive milestone of over 1 billion hours of watch time per day. Recognising this increasing trend, YouTube has embarked on a significant overhaul of its user interface to provide a more seamless and immersive content consumption experience. In its latest iteration of the YouTube TV app, the company aims to deliver what it terms a "lean back" experience, tailored specifically for the large screens of smart televisions.
The revamped YouTube app introduces several noteworthy enhancements designed to elevate the viewing experience. One notable improvement is the introduction of a minimised video playback window, allowing users to enjoy their selected content while simultaneously accessing additional features such as video descriptions, viewer comments, and even browsing through related products featured in the video. Moreover, users will now have the ability to view live sports scores directly within the app, adding a layer of interactivity and engagement to their viewing sessions. By seamlessly toggling between video playback and comment browsing, users can now maintain an uninterrupted viewing experience without compromising on engagement with the community.
What Else Does It Bring To The Table?
Furthermore, the update brings a host of refinements to the user interface, making essential controls such as play, pause, rewind, and fast forward more accessible and intuitive. These refinements have been implemented based on valuable user feedback, with a primary focus on enhancing video immersion, simplifying navigation, and fostering greater user engagement.
While the enhanced YouTube TV app offers improved accessibility to viewer comments, the functionality to add new comments remains exclusive to smartphones or computers.
Notably, this announcement from YouTube comes after X chief Elon Musk's recent announcement regarding the development of a video-centric television app poised to challenge YouTube. This potential standoff between YouTube and X suggests a dynamic evolution in the video streaming landscape. This forthcoming platform from X, expected to deliver a comparable user experience to YouTube, underscores the intensified competition in the realm of video streaming services.