YouTube’s new mini player lets you browse as you watch
YouTube goes mini with a new player that lets you explore the bountiful land of videos all whilst watching your current one in the same page.
YouTube is a wonderful site full of videos ranging from 1 second to hours long, from factual documentaries to surrealist comedy animations. It has something for everyone and then even more, but it’s not the perfect site. What would your biggest gripe be with YouTube? Because mine has always been how I can’t search for other videos whilst watching – at least not without opening a new tab.
Finally there is a solution! YouTube have just introduced their mini-player. It works much like how the YouTube app works on smartphones, by shrinking the video into the corner of your screen and allowing you to browse YouTube and search videos all whilst continuing to watch and listen to whatever you were already watching. It’s simple too; you simply select a button next to the caption button and your player shrinks down to size.
With the mini-player you can explore the site whilst still controlling your video as well as watching it. The mini-player has play and pause functions as well as the option to go back to the previous video or skip to the next video. And selecting the the player outside of these buttons will bring the video back to it’s full size if you’re done browsing.
Google began testing the feature back in March with a limited number of users on desktop but now the feature has launched for everyone to enjoy. It’s a great new feature and opens up YouTube’s library for even more exploration, considering it’s greatest feature is that you can search from billions of videos with videos being added constantly all around the world.