How to Use the New YouTube App Gestures
The YouTube app for Android and iOS is getting big updates for video management, including new gestures and reordered overlay menus with shortcuts to turn full screen on and off, and other features. Once they’re available to you, here’s how you can find them and take full advantage of them.
Swipe to enter full screen mode
You can now swipe up while watching a video to go full screen, and swipe down to exit full screen and return to the “normal” YouTube view.
You can still press the full screen button to enter and exit as usual, but the swipe ability makes the transition easier and smoother.
You will need to swipe over the video itself for these gestures to register, which should help reduce swipe noise at the system level.
New overlay shortcuts and YouTube playback controls
The Google update also changes the YouTube video player overlay menu and adds new buttons that allow you to:
- Turn closed captioning on and off.
- Turns the autoplay of the next video on or off.
- Switch between showing the elapsed time and the remaining time (tap the video time stamp in the lower left corner).
To access these new buttons, tap the video to display the playback control overlay, and then tap the button you want to use.
Google’s changes also include one not-so-great update: you can no longer click on the video’s timeline to skip it. Now you need to tap and slide your finger along the timeline if you want to jump to a specific part of the video, or double-tap the sides of the screen to fast forward or rewind a few seconds.
New YouTube video chapter menu
The YouTube video chapter menu is also undergoing an overhaul. YouTube introduced chapters earlier this year , giving creators the ability to separate different segments of their videos and even add titles so users can find the exact section they want.
Once the latest update hits your device, a new list will appear, showing the video chapters with their respective thumbnails. Clicking on one of the chapter titles opens a list view from which you can select the chapter you want to jump to.
This should make it much easier to select a specific chapter on smartphones, as mobile users used to have to tap or scroll through the video timeline to skip chapters.
Other changes to the YouTube app
New swipe controls, overlay switchers, and a revamped chapter select menu may have the most direct impact on YouTube’s mobile experience, but these aren’t the only changes the update is bringing. The app will now suggest “recommended actions” that can improve the viewing experience of certain videos.
For example, you may be prompted to watch certain videos in full screen or even with a VR headset. The app may also prompt you to set up bedtime reminders so that YouTube nighttime breaks don’t interfere with your sleep.
Everything described here will appear after you install the new YouTube update. The update is available today, but as with all Google deployments, the patch will arrive at different times depending on your device, although Android users may get these new features sooner by enabling the YouTube beta program on Google Play .