YouTube is no stranger to revamping its UI, as the company continues to do so rather often. However, not all of its changes garner praise. According to a new report, YouTube is testing a new layout for the web, and people are already hating on it.
One thing to keep in mind is that this is only a test. The company is auditioning this new layout amongst a limited number of people. As such, you will want to take this news with a grain of salt. At any point, YouTube can change or cancel this new layout.
Currently, when watching YouTube videos on the web, we’re used to seeing the video up top with the comment section below. To the right of the video, there is a panel housing the related videos. This section will also house the transcript should you open it. That’s been working for the company so far. Recently, YouTube even added a section for YouTube Shorts in the side panel.
However, there’s a chance that this could change. People across social media, including platforms such as X and Reddit, have posted screenshots of this potential YouTube layout, and they are not pleased. With the new layout, the feed of related videos will be directly under the currently playing video.
Taking up the right side of the screen, you will see a section that will house everything else. This includes the video title, view count, upload date, and description. Under that, you will see the channel information such as the name and subscriber count with the Subscribe button to the right of it. Right under that, you will see the like/dislike, Share, Download, Clip, Add to playlist, and three-dot menu buttons. Lastly, under that, you’ll see the comments section.
It appears that when you put the video into Theater mode, the video will stretch across the entire screen. So, the aforementioned section will live under the video.
This approach is off-putting, to say the least. We’re used to seeing a large section dedicated to comments so that we can read them more easily. This also goes for the video title and description. However, with this new approach, everything will be jammed into one slender column. Hopefully, the company does not go through with this. Also, we don’t know if YouTube is planning a new layout for the mobile app.
