The YouTube expertise on TVs has all the time felt like an afterthought in comparison with watching it on telephones or the online. However with TV not too long ago changing into extra standard than cell for watching YouTube within the US, the tv expertise is lastly going to get a redesign quickly – and that’s nice information, so long as some annoying points are mounted within the course of.
Almost all of my YouTube watching takes place on my TV by way of the Apple TV app. I assumed this made me a streaming dinosaur, however the 2025 stats say completely different, and that’s why YouTube has promised to prioritize the large display screen this yr in a means that it by no means has earlier than.
This week, to tie in with YouTube’s twentieth birthday, we heard that the house of short-form video is getting a “TV viewing upgrade” that can roll out “this summer”.
Exact particulars of what which means are scarce, however a teaser picture (above) offers us an thought of what to anticipate, together with a number of promised enhancements.
These embrace “easier navigation” (let’s hope that features an improved search expertise), plus some “quality tweaks” and a greater playback expertise. YouTube can be promising “streamlined access to comments, channel info, and subscribing.”
That final level caught my eye, as a result of a comparatively latest change to subscriptions in YouTube’s Apple TV app has change into a severe ache – and in line with Reddit threads, I’m not alone in feeling that means.
Somewhat than itemizing your subscriptions in alphabetical order, the TV app on most companies (Google TV, Hearth TV, and extra) now jumbles them up confusingly so as of mysterious “relevance” – regardless that that isn’t the case within the cell app. And it frustrates me virtually each time I watch YouTube on the large display screen.
A extra TV-like expertise
Granted, there are greater complaints in regards to the YouTube expertise on TVs – most notably, an more and more painful advert expertise that’s making YouTube Premium obligatory, until you get pleasure from urgent the mute button each couple of minutes.
However I’m hoping YouTube’s promised navigation enhancements embrace bringing again alphabetical subscription lists, or a greater solution to expertise them. I beforehand used the subscriptions record like an EPG, which helped me rapidly discover the most recent collection I used to be having fun with (my newest obsession being Trash Principle‘s wonderful music essays).
Now, the channels are ordered by what YouTube considers “most relevant”, which is often completely different from what I feel is related – as a result of YouTube can’t (but) learn my thoughts. That is one thing you may change when watching in a browser (by going to Subscriptions > Handle > then selecting A-Z from the drop-down menu), however not within the many TV apps.
There are workarounds like casting out of your telephone to your TV as an alternative, however I’m a TV native with regards to YouTube – so I hope the large redesign that’s en route additionally restores a number of the performance that was not too long ago eliminated in basic Google vogue.
There’s a hazard that these new options might be accompanied by ‘upgrades’ like “pause ads”, which is one thing YouTube has been testing whereas drumming its fingers collectively like Mr Burns. One other function that has been promised is a “second screen experience that lets you use your phone to interact with the video you’re watching on TV”.
I’m reasonable – Google and YouTube hardly ever give us new options with out discovering methods to concurrently print extra advert cash from the one billion hours we spend watching YouTube content material on TVs day-after-day (sure, actually). However so long as the TV expertise lastly feels as polished and user-friendly because the cell app, I’ll doubtless proceed to spend extra time on YouTube than the greatest streaming companies.
