YouTube recently announced that it’s bringing a handful of updates to its Shorts platform which it says are designed to streamline the overall user experience, based on community feedback. As per YouTube’s official announcement:
We’ve been listening to feedback on how to improve the viewing experience on Shorts. Based on what we’ve heard, we’re rolling out updates like a “Clear screen” feature and speed settings to give you more control on how you watch. We’re also updating the player’s feedback tools by introducing a heart icon and retiring the “Dislike” button. Recent experiments showed that simplifying these options made it easier for users to give more specific feedback on videos and led to a more intuitive and better experience overall.
With that said, YouTube is organizing Shorts features—such as audio tracks and related video links—into a single carousel located directly beneath the video title. In addition to this, a new “Clear Screen” feature will allow users to hide all on-screen buttons and text with a single tap, and viewers can now mute videos by tapping the screen to pause and selecting the mute icon.
YouTube is also introducing 2x playback speed to Shorts, and viewers can fast-forward by holding down the edge of the screen, with the video returning to normal speed once they lift their finger. Alternatively, users can also lock the video at 2x speed by swiping down while pressing the player.
As mentioned, the “Dislike” button will disappear for Shorts, and the thumbs-up button will be replace with a heart icon instead. YouTube claims that simplifying these options created a more “intuitive” user experience.
Finally, YouTube is also bringing alternative feedback tools located behind the three-dot menu. When users select “Not Interested,” they can now provide specific reasons why the video did not appeal to them. Meanwhile, the “Don’t recommend this channel” and “Report” options will remain unchanged to help users manage their feeds and flag content that violates community guidelines.
The updates are scheduled to roll out globally over the coming weeks.
