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YouTube Music testing fullscreen cover art for Now Playing

Following Now Playing’s split-view redesign earlier this year, YouTube Music is testing fullscreen cover art.

Currently, artwork appears between the audio/video switcher and song title with rounded corners. 

This new design has cover art that takes up your entire screen, including the status and system navigation bars. You go from a square to this rectangle that might significantly crop things out as seen in the example below.

Old vs. new

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It’s interesting how this effect also applies when watching music videos. This reflects how portrait, Shorts-esque video has taken over and something people are comfortable with.

The background of the pill-shaped buttons in the actions carousel becomes transparent, while YouTube Music entirely drops the artwork-based color theming for this screen.

Overall, it’s a bit reminiscent of the approach Google Play Music took for its Now Playing interface. 

YouTube Music’s fullscreen cover art redesign is still being tested and not widely rolled out yet.

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com