Following the Now Playing redesign in April, the next big YouTube Music change moves Search to the bottom bar.
Search replaces Explore in the bottom bar, with no changes to the Home, Samples, or Library tabs. The top-right corner of the app is now just for the profile menu and Activity/notifications feed.
Tapping the magnifying glass opens the keyboard to let you start typing, while voice and song search remain in place. You’ll see a list of recent queries and then the previous Explore grid: New releases, Charts, Moods & genres, and Podcasts. This lets you access much of the previous dedicated page experience.
You get more recent searches after that, as well as a “You may also like” section.
Old vs. new
Google has been testing this change since last year. It’s nice for one-handed reachability, while matching the layout of other streaming services.
We’re seeing this change rolled out with version 9.22 on iOS and 9.21 on Android. If you’re not seeing it yet, Force stop from App info. As of this afternoon, we’re seeing pretty wide availability.
More on YouTube:
- YouTube TV subscribers can get 50% off Google TV Streamer
- YouTube is making its app better for podcast playback, but only for Premium users
- YouTube adds ‘custom feed’ to home page, just in case the search bar is too boring for you
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