Don’t Like That YouTube Video? Just Swipe to the Next
YouTube is changing how you navigate through its website, making it more like Instagram and Snapchat Stories.
This week, the company will roll out swipe-to-navigate functionality, so you can move between videos by swiping horizontally on your smartphone. Swiping to the left takes you to the next video, while swiping to the right will bring up the one you previously watched.
As reported by TechCrunch, the move is designed to modernize how the YouTube app works on mobile—where 70 percent of YouTube's content is consumed. The update will roll out to iOS users in the next week; it's unclear when it will arrive on Android. Presumably the company is waiting to see the feedback from Apple users before pushing the update to all devices.
YouTube is no doubt looking to increase engagement and time spent in its app. It also allows for more opportunities to make money via ads that pop up as you swipe.
This isn't the only change YouTube has made of late. At the end of December, it started having videos autoplay on iOS and Android without audio (but with captions), which meant that videos appeared more popular because they play and register a view automatically.
The company also introduced free, ad-supported movies, such as The Terminator, Rocky, Legally Blonde, and Agent Cody Banks, as a means for potential advertisers to put more ads in front of their audience and compete against traditional television channels.
Any video and music can be downloaded by the application.