YouTube announces raft of new features and updates

YouTube has rolled out a raft of new features and design updates for its service, spanning both use and content creation.

YouTube’s discovery features before and after the update

The video site is launching a ‘stable volume’ feature that will be automatically turned on to reduce jarring differences in volume.

It will also add an option for viewers to automatically increase the speed of playback to two times the live speed. Users can press on any part of the player to activate this and return to normal speed by letting go.

The site is adding bigger prefview thumbnails while people are searching for specific parts of videos. They can also move thir finger back along the timeline slider and lift their finger when they feel a vibration to indicate where they left off.

Other new features include a lock screen on mobile and tablets to enable users to prevent accidental interruptions.

YouTube has also merged its library table and account page into a new home tab called the You tab, where users can find previously watched videos, playlists, downloads and purchases, as well as account-related settings and channel information.

YouTubve on smart TV ‘before and after’

Users will also be able to search for a voice or song by humming it, with AI providing a match of the sound to the original recording. The latter feature, which will roll out in a few weeks, will be restricted to Android devices initially.

YouTube is also updating its presence on smart TVs. Viewers will be able to find details about a video they are watching in a new vertical menu that enables quicker access to features such as the video description, comments, the subscribe button, as well as video chapters. Users will be able to  click on the video title while watching a video to pop up the menu. Similar features will be rolled out on web and mobile.

YouTube said the changes would be rolled out gradually to users around the world in the coming weeks.