I use browser add ons to have the comments moved the right panel. I enjoy reading comments during the video and I don’t want to have to scroll away from the video to read them. This design just makes sense to me.
If you download the APK from their official website instead of from the playstore, you need zero configuration. If you download the playstore version you’ll still need to download the youtube plugin.
In some ways it’s not terrible. Putting chat to the side makes sense. What I can’t stand is polluting the viewing area with the top edge of the recommended videos, and not even the whole frame of the preview. It feels like the page isn’t scrolled completely up or down and it’s super distracting. Thankfully it’s easy blocked with ublock.
It’s not too bad, looks like the Twitch interface of having chat/comments be on the side. That said having to scroll through videos horizontally seems like a pain compared to scrolling through them vertically.
A few months ago they required that you have a watch history to display the homepage.
This week they’re showing up next popups even when you have autoplay turned off.
Using an Apple TV I probably watch more YouTube than any other platform and was given a gift of a premium subscription. It removed all ads, gave me YouTube music, but the shitty experiments continue and there’s no way to tell YouTube to sod off.
A few months ago they required that you have a watch history to display the homepage.
I’m actually glad for this change. I hated the random junk they always suggest on my homepage. I spent ages clicking on the menu on each video and selecting “don’t recommend this channel.” It took a few years, but I actually got a clean, empty homepage. Then they changed their website and all the videos came back. I had to start over, cleaning out my feed again.
Now with this new change, my homepage is always clear. Thanks, YouTube!
For the record, I only watch my subscriptions. If I learn about a new channel, it’s through another site/person recommending it. I don’t let YouTube recommend me stuff to watch. And I definitely don’t watch YouTube Shorts or whatever they call their vertical video nonsense.
You might want to look in to FreeTube if you ‘only’ watch subscriptions. It currently only does subscriptions and play lists, and doesn’t use a google account, or any account if you want.
You’d have a better experience than the browser ‘and’ google doesn’t get the metadata on what you’re subscribed to and watch. Win-win.
You’re out of luck for Apple TV, but not for iOS. I uninstalled YouTube from my phone and use Orion browser as my default now. It lets you install extensions from the Firefox or Chrome store, so I have ublock origin installed on my phone now and YouTube ads are gone.
Judging by the seemingly overwhelmingly negative response, we don’t see YouTube moving forward with this design. But tell us what you think. Let us know in the comments below.
This is a misunderstanding of how google works I think.
Great way to communicate directly with the person who posted the video. Also a good way to answer questions when viewing educational content (like cooking shows).
Driving engagement. They don’t care if it’s full of trolls or spambots. As long as it entices users to engage on their platform, it’s a plus in their books
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