YouTube for Android TV, other smart TVs adds new playlist UI instead of playing all videos

Ben Schoon | Nov 29 2021 - 2:41 pm PT

Google has said before that the TV is one of the biggest areas where YouTube is growing, and as such the company has been improving its YouTube app on smart TV platforms. This week, the YouTube app for TVs is changing how it handles playlists.

With its latest update, YouTube on Android TV and other smart TV platforms now shows a proper playlist UI when you click on a playlist. This is updated from the previous behavior, which simply played the entire playlist immediately.

The new UI shows the playlist with its name and other details off to the left side of the display, with “Play all,” “Loop,” and “Save to Library” options. On the right side, the videos are listed in order, which allows users to start watching the playlist from any point.

Notably, we’re seeing this behavior rolled out on Android TV/Google TV devices on the latest app update, version 2.15.006. Another user is telling us that they’re seeing the same on a Samsung TV with app version 2.1.498. Like most YouTube features, though, it’s probably a safe bet that this is a server-side rollout.