Here's why your YouTube app might look a little different today

Key Takeaways

YouTube has changed the bottom bar on the app to be translucent and tweaked the icons on it.
A new miniplayer, sleep timer, and playback speed customization are also available on the app.
The changes are rolling out now on Android and iOS, to see them make sure your app is up-to-date.

If you use the YouTube app daily, you may or may not have noticed a few design changes recently. YouTube has begun widely rolling out a number of new updates to its Android and iOS app, including a translucent bottom bar, as well as tweaked icons on it.

The translucent effect on the bottom bar is more noticeable if you use YouTube in dark mode, and it essentially makes it so you can see through the bottom bar rather than it being a static color like before.

9to5Google described it best as a “frosted glass effect.” You can see thumbnails of videos in it that are slightly blurred when you’re scrolling through the home and subscription feed, almost like a sneak preview of what’s coming next. The tweaked icons on the bottom bar include a new facade roof on the home icon, a more pronounced Shorts button, and a slightly resigned plus and subscriptions button.

YouTube’s hidden gaming section is finally worth checking out

YouTube is starting to add multiplayer functionality to some of the games in its Playable games library.

What else is new on YouTube?

A revamped miniplayer and a sleep timer

These minor visual changes are part of a number of updates YouTube announced and started introducing in October. As someone who pays for YouTube Premium and spends a lot of time using the app, I think the changes are small but worthwhile improvements.

Firstly, YouTube added a new sleep timer feature that lets users set a timer for YouTube to stop playing a video in case you fall asleep. You can set a timer for up to an hour or until the end of the video. I am very guilty of falling asleep on YouTube almost every night and have woken up many times to a random video playing, so the new sleep timer feature is what I’m most excited about.

The app’s miniplayer has been revamped too, allowing you to move it to any corner of your screen instead of being stuck at the bottom like before. It has rounded corners now and a new 10-second rewind/forward button. It looks a lot like Android’s picture-in-picture window. YouTube has also changed its playback speed option, adding a new slider to customize the speed at which a video is playing. All these changes are rolling out on YouTube now. Just make sure your app is up-to-date to start seeing them.