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YouTube rolls out ‘Explore’ tab on Android, iOS apps w/ trending, creator content

After being in beta for shy of two years, YouTube is finally rolling out its “Explore” tab on both Android and iOS, a new home for trending content and much more.

In a post today, YouTube confirms that the Trending tab is being replaced with Explore and the change is rolling out now to all users. What’s different about Explore? Instead of just showing the most popular content on YouTube, this tab also contains shortcuts to popular categories such as Gaming, Music, Fashion & Beauty, Learning, and others.

Underneath those categories, the Explore tab also showcases either a creator or music artist “On The Rise.” This is in the hope to help boost smaller, growing members of the YouTube community. Then, there’s the traditional Trending section with the most popular videos at the time.

  • Easy access to destination pages: Tap the buttons at the top of the Explore tab to find new videos to watch from our existing destination pages – Music, Gaming, News, Movies & Shows, Fashion & Beauty and Learning. We plan to continue adding more destination pages over time, so let us know what you’d like to see.
  • More prominent Creator & Artist on the Rise section: As you scroll through your Explore feed, you’ll see “Creator on the Rise” and “Artist on the Rise” before other trending videos. New creators and artists emerge on YouTube every day, so we hope this makes it easier for you to discover their content and connect with them and their communities! Learn more about Creators & Artists On the Rise.
  • Continue to see what’s Trending on YouTube right now: The Trending page will continue to have its own section in Explore (& it’s own button at the top too!) with the goal of showing you what’s happening on YouTube and in the world right now. By the way, Trending displays the same list of trending videos in each country/region to everyone. Read more about how Trending works.

As mentioned, YouTube has been testing out this “Explore” tab for a long time, with today’s announcement being based on feedback from users between July of 2018 and now. The new tab is rolling out now to the Android and iOS apps and should be live for some users already, but it may take a few days for everyone to see it.

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