YouTube rolls out iPhone homescreen widget that immediately opens subscriptions, search

Abner Li | Oct 15 2022 - 12:25 pm PT

YouTube is Google’s latest app to add iPhone and iPad homescreen widgets with one of them in particular providing very convenient shortcuts.

“Quick Actions” measures 4×2 and is billed as “the fastest way to search and browse YouTube.” There’s a “Search YouTube” field up top that immediately launches that UI with the keyboard open, while the microphone icon brings up voice lookup.

You then have “Home,” “Shorts,” and “Subscriptions” to open those respective feeds immediately. Outline-style icons that appear in the bottom bar are used by this widget. The latter shortcut is quite convenient, while the middle one does reflect YouTube’s immense short-form video focus.

There’s also a 2×2 “Search” widget that also has a black or white background (based on system theme) and just allows for quick text entry.

YouTube for iPhone and iPad’s new homescreen widgets rolled out sometime in the past two weeks, and we’re seeing them live with version 17.40.5 today. As always, be sure to open the app first after updating before long-pressing on your homescreen and launching the widget picker from the top-left corner.

The last major drop of iOS widgets by Google was at the start of 2022 with Inbox from Gmail, XL iPad options by Drive, and Translate shortcuts. Meanwhile, the company earlier this week finished rolling out its six Lock Screen widgets.