YouTube Music's Next Big Move: A Controversial Now Playing Redesign
YouTube Music has been quietly testing a new Now Playing screen redesign for Android and iOS users over the past year. This update, which is currently in the testing phase, introduces a cleaner and more intuitive interface with a few interesting changes. But here's where it gets controversial...
The redesign features icons for the 'Song' and 'Video' switcher, which is a welcome improvement over the current interface. This switcher has been a staple of YouTube Music for a long time, and its removal would have disrupted users' muscle memory. The new design also includes a rounded progress bar without a playhead, which becomes thicker when scrubbing, aligning with the main YouTube interface.
The biggest change, however, is to the three bottom tabs. The 'Lyrics' and 'Related' tabs have been removed, with the 'Up Next' tab now displaying the album, playlist, or mix you're currently listening to. This change has sparked debate among users, as some argue that it de-emphasizes the music video library.
The lyrics functionality has been moved into the carousel, with some designs placing it right after the thumbs up/down pill and others having it as the fourth item partially off-screen. The first design is considered better due to its high usage. This allows for a dual-pane view that combines controls and the queue, which is a nice idea but requires moving around other frequently used parts of the app.
While more people have seen this redesign in the past few days, it's not yet widely rolled out. It remains to be seen if YouTube Music has settled on this design, and whether the A/B testing, which began last November, will continue.
So, what do you think? Is this redesign an improvement, or are there aspects that could be enhanced? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
