YouTube

YouTube rolls out new design with pinch-to-zoom on iOS and Android and other updates • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 24, 2022Posted in Apps, YouTubeNo Comments

YouTube announced a makeover to its interface today, including a new look, a pinch-to-zoom feature, precise seeking, new buttons, ambient mode and a dark mode that’s “even darker.” The updates will gradually roll out to all users beginning today. YouTube’s new pinch-to-zoom feature lets users on iOS and Android devices zoom in on videos so they can see more details. This feature was available as a test to Premium subscribers in August. Precise seeking will allow users to easily find an exact part in a video. Available on desktop and mobile, users can drag the cursor or swipe up on the video to see a row of thumbnails. This helps users find the exact spot in the video they want to rewatch. Image Credits: YouTube YouTube’s update also includes a new color effect called “ambient mode” that uses “dynamic color sampling” to match the app’s background color to the colors in the video that a user watches, Nate Koechley, UX Director, YouTube, wrote in the official blog post. To our understanding, the new effect is very subtle and mainly for aesthetic reasons. The purpose is to draw the viewer into the content and put “greater focus on our watch page,” Koechley added. Ambient mode will be available on desktop and mobile with YouTube’s dark theme. It’ll also be available on video playlists. Another visual change will be new buttons under videos. YouTube links in video descriptions are now buttons in order to “minimize distractions,” the company explained. To make the page even “easier on the eyes,” the like, share and download buttons will also get makeovers and be smaller in size. Plus, the subscribe button will now appear as a black-and-white pill-shaped button instead of the bright red “SUBSCRIBE.” These updates are unlikely to soften the blow of the latest price hike to YouTube’s Premium subscription plan for families. The plan will increase to $22.99 per month in November.

YouTube Premium’s family plan gets a price hike in several countries • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 21, 2022Posted in Apps, family plan, price hikes, YouTube, YouTube PremiumNo Comments

YouTube is raising prices for its Premium subscription plans across many countries including the US, the UK, Canada, and Argentina. News of the price hike emerged after several users in these regions received emails about a rise that will be effective from November 21. The video streaming service’s Premium plan for families lets up to five people use features like ad-free videos, downloads for offline consumption, and background play under a single subscription. On Thursday, several people on Reddit first noted that Canada-based users were getting emails about the change in the monthly rate from CA$17.99 to CA$22.99 for the Premium family plan. But soon folks from the US also posted about the tariff being raised from $17.99 per month to $22.99. Users from the UK also said the YouTube Premium family plan is now getting costlier by £2 — from £17.99 to £19.99 per month. UK:First, it was 10 unskippable ads.Then it was Premium only 4k upwards.Now, premium is more expensive. Man… YouTube are really getting greedy as of late. pic.twitter.com/sRtayaIezi — PlymouthJoseph (@plymouthJoseph) October 20, 2022 The situation is a bit more dire for Argentina-based YouTube users. The company is increasing prices for both individual and family Premium plans by quite a lot. The Individual plan will cost ARS 389 ($2.53) per month up from ARS 119 ($0.78) per month, and family plans will cost ARS 699 ($4.55) per month up from ARS 179 ($1.17) per month. That’s a staggering hike — of around 220% and 290%, respectively. 🔥¡Se avivó YouTube!🇦🇷Aumenta un 290% el precio de Premium 🔺La cuenta familiar pasa de USD 1.18 a USD 4.63 y la común de USD 0.87 a USD 3.30.🇺🇸En EE.UU. el precio es cuatro veces más caro. 🏴‍☠️Había muchos no argentinos usando VPNs en Argentina para tener YTP regalado. pic.twitter.com/KFKbKqOm0X — Maximiliano Firtman (@maxifirtman) October 20, 2022 Here are some other countries where YouTube has hiked the prices: Turkey (Family plan): TRY 29.99 ($1.61) per month to TRY 59.99 per month Turkey (Student plan): TRY 9.99 ($0.54) per month to TRY 19.49 ($1.05) per month Japan (Family plan): ¥1,780 ($11.83) per month to ¥2,280 ($15.16) per month We will update this list as we learn more. YouTube hadn’t commented about the reason behind the price hikes at the time of writing. A number of other companies have also announced price hikes. In recent weeks, for example, Apple has raised prices for App Store purchases to counter fluctuation in currency against the dollar and rising inflation across the globe. This could be a likely reason for the increase in YouTube’s paid plans for families. It’s a frustrating situation for users — who can provide feedback to YouTube through this page. However, there’s no guarantee YouTube will roll back the price increases in response to user feedback. The price hike also affects grandfathered family users — folks who migrated from legacy Google Play Music — who currently pay YouTube $14.99 per month. They will also have to pay $22.99 per month. But the price rise for those users is happening later: In April next year. YouTube has been trying to earn more money through premium subscriptions. Recently, it ran an experiment asking free users to upgrade to watch videos in the 4K. Earlier this week, the company ended the test. As noted above, multiple companies have raised the prices of their subscription plans this year. In January, the cost of a Netflix subscription increased between $1-$2 for different tiers. In February, Amazon Prime revised its rates from $12.99 per month to $14.99 per month; or $119 per year to $139 per year. Other services like Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu have also made their plans costlier.

YouTube ends the test asking users to get a premium subscription to watch 4K videos • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in 4k, Apps, Google, subscriptions, YouTubeNo Comments

Earlier this month, YouTube ran an experiment where it asked some free users to upgrade to a premium account to watch videos in 4K resolution. The company has now ended this test — probably because of uproar from users. In a tweet, YouTube confirmed the end of the experiment and said, “viewers should now be able to access 4K quality resolutions without Premium membership.” So all users can now watch videos at the highest resolution without paying for a subscription. we’ve fully turned off this experiment. viewers should now be able to access 4K quality resolutions without Premium membership. we’re here if you have other q’s — TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) October 17, 2022 YouTube ran the test to understand to gauge users’ reactions when a particular feature was pushed behind the premium tier. In a now-deleted tweet, the company told a user who got a pop-up asking them to upgrade that the user was “a part of our experiment to know better the feature preferences of Premium & non-Premium viewers.” Google charges $9.99 per month for YouTube Music and $11.99 per month for YouTube premium in the U.S. — these prices vary across the world. The company claims to have more than 50 million paid subscribers across both offerings globally. The Premium subscription offers features like ad-free viewing, video downloads for offline consumption, and background play. YouTube tries many ways to convert free users into paid users. Earlier this year, it ran an experiment showing users up to 11 unskippable ads before the start of a long video to let them have an uninterrupted experience. This test was short-lived and the company ended it within days. Last week, YouTube introduced a new feature called handles — which is similar to what other social networks like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook offer — that allows creators to direct viewers to their channel easily.

YouTube to broadly support the @username format with launch of YouTube handles • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 11, 2022Posted in Apps, Creators, Media & Entertainment, YouTube, YouTube ShortsNo Comments

YouTube is making it easier for creators to direct viewers to their channels. The company today announced “handles,” a new way for creators to identify their channel with an @username format in order to interact with their viewers across YouTube Shorts, channel pages, in video descriptions, in comments and more. These handles will be made available to everyone on YouTube — you don’t need to be a creator of a certain size or subscriber count to claim your own unique @handle, YouTube says. Handles and @usernames are common across social media, including on sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram and others. But YouTube had only offered limited support for the format — allowing creators to mention channels in video titles and descriptions with the @ symbol, or mention other users in YouTube Live chats, for example. But the @username option was not available in other areas and discussions. Instead, you’d have to reply to another YouTube user’s comment in order to tag them. With YouTube’s expansion into TikTok’s territory with YouTube Shorts, however, the company now wants to more closely mimic the way the ByteDance-owned video app encourages users to engage in back-and-forth discussions through their short videos and in the resulting discussions and video responses that come about. To work, that requires the use of @usernames — or @handles as YouTube calls them. YouTube says the new handles will appear on both channel pages and Shorts, making them “instantly and consistently recognizable” across the platform. After handles are fully launched, users will be able to @mention others in the comments, community posts, video descriptions and elsewhere. While these handles won’t replace the channel name itself, they will be unique across YouTube, allowing creators to establish a distinct presence for themselves on the platform. Support for handles will begin to roll out gradually, starting later next week. To protect creators from having their channel name staked by someone else in what’s sure to be one of the biggest username landgrabs on the internet, YouTube notes that channels that already have a personalized URL will see that becoming their default handle unless they choose to change it. The company also indicated that the timing of the rollout of handles has been designed in a way to ensure that established creators will gain access to the feature first, as YouTube plans to utilize factors — like the creator’s overall YouTube presence, subscriber count and whether the channel is active or inactive — when determining when to offer a creator the ability to set up their own handle. After a handle is established, YouTube will additionally create a matching URL in the format of youtube.com/@handle, which would allow the creator to market their handle elsewhere on the web or in other media. And if the channel already had a personalized URL it was using for a similar purpose, they won’t need to update their links — that URL will automatically redirect to the new handle-based URL instead. Everyone on YouTube will be able to grab a handle for themselves at some point. YouTube says creators should look for a notification to arrive over the next month.