YouTube

For the past decade, YouTube has closed out the year with a “Rewind” video that recaps viral trends, major moments, and other happening in online culture. However, 2020 will not see a YouTube Rewind as the Google company cites this year’s various circumstances.

For most, YouTube — especially on mobile — is primarily for content consumption. The app can also be used to upload video or go live, and Google is now better emphasizing that with a giant “create” button in YouTube for Android and later iOS.

While it’s relatively rare for Google services to go offline, the phenomenon does occasionally occur. YouTube and YouTube TV (in the US) are currently down, with videos not playing.

Compared to most other video players, Google is relatively unique for letting users set the specific playback resolution. YouTube is now testing “Video quality preferences” that simplify the selection.

YouTube’s Premium and Music Premium subscriptions continue to add more members, and the Google company now has an interesting “Your Premium benefits” page with stats to quantify your usage.

While you’re primarily on YouTube for videos, some creators put a lot of additional information in the Description. YouTube is now testing a new fullscreen Descriptions interface on Android.

Back in February, Google provided an update on YouTube Music/Premium and YouTube TV subscribers. During Q3 2020 earnings, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced 30 million, ad-free paying members and another million for the cord-cutting service.

YouTube today announced a series of Android and iOS updates as part of a video player page redesign. The general look stays the same, but the Google company has worked to optimize button placement and layouts, while adding some convenient shortcuts.

Thanks to syncing and account linking, all of your Google Play Movie & TV purchases can be accessed on YouTube. This is a really neat aspect of the Google “ecosystem” but it looks like playback is being limited to just 480p on YouTube temporarily — even if you purchased HD versions of your favorite movies.

YouTube on mobile is removing the ability to skip forward or backward when viewing a video by tapping the seek bar in the video viewer.

Thanks to a brand new toggle, YouTube for web is now able to respect your browser theme automatically rather than relying on you to flick between dark and light mode.

Today, many reviewers use YouTube as a platform to share their thoughts about new products in video form. To better accommodate both reviewers and potential buyers, Google is reportedly planning to integrate a full shopping experience into YouTube.

As the world’s biggest video-sharing platform, YouTube goes through almost constant transformation with tweaks, adjustments, and overhauls on an almost yearly basis. The latest looks to be iOS-style line icons within all YouTube menus, sub-menus, sections, and even in the player window.

YouTube has essentially the same app across TV platforms, and over the past week it’s been rolling out a revamped video interface to some platforms. Here’s a quick look at the new YouTube UI rolling out on Android TV, Fire TV, and probably other platforms.

YouTube today announced a series of changes to how age-restricted videos work on its platform. The Google company will be leveraging machine learning in this review process, while YouTube videos meant for those over 18 will not play on third-party sites.

YouTube loves to experiment and test new features with subsections of users, and the latest will be a brand-new section for upcoming content such as live streams and premieres within the dedicated “Subscription” section.

As rumored — and following other social networks, YouTube today announced “Shorts” as a “new short-form video experience for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones.”