YouTube Music tests permanent miniplayer that can’t be swiped away

Abner Li | May 10 2023 - 7:34 am PT

The miniplayer in YouTube Music for Android and iOS last changed in 2020 with a broader redesign of the Now Playing screen. YouTube Music is now testing rather significant changes to the miniplayer.

Update: At I/O, Google showed off a tablet design where play/pause is still at the right, but Cast is replaced by next. This design might allow for next and Cast to be interchangeable, but it doesn’t really make sense otherwise. As such, it should be thought of as an ongoing experiment by the YouTube Music team.

Cover art, song name, and artist still appear at the left, but play and next on the right have been replaced with a button that opens the Cast menu and play/pause.

YouTube Music added the ability to swipe left/right for next/back, with the latter functionality being new. However, in doing this, you can no longer swipe the miniplayer down to remove and clear your current queue. Before 2020, YouTube Music showed a play button and ‘x’ to close. When it is empty, YouTube Music will say “Nothing is playing” and show a gray square.

Credit: u/heilheitelerer

This down gesture was presumably removed to not interfere with swiping for next/back, and the initial reaction is mostly negative since there’s no other way to clear your queue now besides starting a new song.

Additionally for users that don’t Cast very often, the new shortcut will go unused, especially since it also exists in the top-right corner of the app.

The new miniplayer in YouTube Music is not yet widely rolled out, but in A/B testing with some users. If the feedback is negative enough, YouTube Music might not launch it and rethink the design. That might have happened with the Now Playing redesign late last year that primarily removed the thumbs down button and placed it into the long overflow menu. Overall, it’s probably not possible to have both the left/right gesture and swipe down in terms of accuracy.