YouTube have refreshed their look and design with a sleek new appearance and introduce a bunch of great features on mobiles.

When YouTube launched 12 years ago, it was a single website that supported one video format, 320×240 at 4:3 aspect ratio. Fast forward to today, and YouTube lets you watch any combination of SD, HD, 4K, 360, 3-D, and live video on nearly every device with an internet connection – from desktops to phones, tablets to TVs, game consoles, and even VR headsets.

YouTube has come a hell of a long way, but there’s no end in sight with a fresh coat re-enlivening the YouTube site and app’s appearance. As they say themselves: “We’re not even close to done. Over the last few months we’ve started releasing updates and will continue to throughout the rest of the year. When all is said and done, we’ll bring a new level of functionality and a more consistent look across our desktop and mobile experiences.”

On the website the new YouTube logo and icon is subtle but pleasant, changing very little but making it clearer and easier to work with. The new desktop design introduces Google’s Material Design to YouTube giving it a fresh new look and making the website simple and intuitive to navigate. If you’re looking to switch up YouTube’s look a bit you can now apply ‘Dark Theme’ which makes the background dark for a cinematic experience, or just if you prefer black.

New infinite scroll means you can scroll down endlessly looking at videos and comments. Verification badges have been updated to a higher resolution so that it is harder for unverified channels to imitate verified channels. Creator and account settings are now all in the right hand menu under your profile picture. Sub numbers will also be rounded to simplify stats, whilst you can still see precise numbers under the channel name on the ‘About’ section on a channel’s page.

YouTube’s mobile app meanwhile gets a bunch of new features and some still to come:

  • Clean new design: We’ve made the header white to let content take the lead and moved the navigation tabs to the bottom of the app so they’re closer to your thumbs. We also added new Library and Account tabs that give you easy access to what you’re looking for.
  • Videos that move with you: One of the things we’re working on is bringing gestures to YouTube. Earlier this year, we introduced a gesture that allows you to double tap on the left or right side of a video to fast forward or rewind 10 seconds. Give it a try! We already see billions of double taps per day. And I wanted to give you a sneak peek at another gesture I am really excited about. In the coming months, we’ll experiment with a feature that lets you jump between videos with a simple swipe of your hand: just swipe left to watch a previous video or swipe right to watch the next one.
  • Watch at your own pace: Users love that they are able to speed up and slow down the playback of a video on desktop, and we’re excited to bring this feature to the mobile app today, so you can enjoy videos at whatever speed you prefer.
  • Adapt to any video, beautifully: We’ve also been experimenting with new ways to display all videos in the best possible way. Soon, the YouTube player will seamlessly change shape to match the video format you’re watching, such as vertical, square or horizontal. That means you’ll always get the best viewing experience automatically – including vertical videos with no black bars on the sides!
  • Browse and discover while you watch: We recently added a feature that lets you view a row of suggested videos while you’re watching in full screen. We’re also working on transforming the area below the player so you can browse videos in totally new ways.