After almost two months of back and forth, YouTube TV has just officially launched its new “Last Channel Shortcut” which allows users to quickly switch back and forth between channels they’re watching.
Most means of traditional TV have a shortcut button that allows quickly hopping back and forth between your most recently watched channels. The feature, often abbreviated as “Prev” on remotes, is super handy for flipping between two specific programs, but wasn’t really possible on YouTube TV.
That finally changed back in December, when YouTube TV started testing a shortcut to quickly switch back to your previously-watched channel. The feature only showed up for a few people at first, only to disappear weeks later. Earlier this week, the feature re-appeared on Roku devices, but now YouTube is opening the floodgates.
Officially called the “Last Channel Shortcut,” this new option in YouTube TV allows users to long-press the “Select” or “OK” button on their remote to jump to whatever channel or video they were last viewing. As YouTube notes in a Reddit post where it officially announced the feature, this works across live, on-demand, and DVR content.
The feature, which is finally rolling out widely across all YouTube TV apps, shows a small animation when you trigger it, as well as a message at the top of the screen explaining what just happened. When the feature is available to your device, you’ll get a pop-up explaining how to use it, as pictured below.
We’re seeing the option on Google TV for the first time this evening, and it appears to be rolling out across all platforms as of today.
More on YouTube TV:
- YouTube TV ‘Build a Multiview’ rolling out, starting with NBA League Pass
- YouTube TV delays new ‘1080p Enhanced’ with higher bitrate for better picture quality
- YouTube TV hits 8 million subscribers
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