James R | On 27, Jul 2015

YouTube has updated its mobile app with new features for both viewers and creators.

YouTube has seen viewing time increase significantly in the last year, Google announced in its latest earnings report this week. The site’s growth has been primarily driven by mobile users. Indeed, mobile devices now make up more than half the views on YouTube. Keen to encourage that growth to continue, YouTube has smartly decided to make some much needed improvements to its mobile apps.

The update – available now on Android, mobile web, and soon on iOS – introduced three new tabs to the interface. ‘Home’ allows users to easily explore and discover videos with recommendations based on watch history as well as personalised playlists. ‘Subscriptions’ shows the latest videos from users’ favorite channels and creators – notifications can also be activated by tapping a new bell icon on a channel. ‘Account’ takes you to your playlists, watch history, and videos you’ve uploaded.

More importantly, though, users annoyed by the widespread trend of recording videos on upright phones can now watch vertical videos in full-screen for the first time.

YouTube hasn’t forgotten its creators, though. As Facebook continues to rival the video giant for its vloggers’ affections, YouTube has introduced a new set of video creation tools for people to use on the go. Now, users can trim footage, tint pictures with filters, add music, and upload – all inside the app.

“These are just a few of the features we’ve been working on, and you’ll see many more later this year,” promise Product Managers Matt Darby and Omri Amarilio on the official YouTube blog.

Add to Watchlist