YouTube is rolling out autoplay preview thumbnails for AndroidTV and GoogleTV devices hosting the platform. The site is also testing out preview comments on its mobile version.
Previews on thumbnails have been a feature for quite a long time on YouTube. While they started out with the website, the mobile app got them in shortly after and it’s not difficult to see why. Previews help users gauge quality, tone, and content within a few short seconds. The overall appeal of a video can be gauged by users through just hovering their mouse over a video and waiting. Preview thumbnails may not be the most original feature to strike the internet, or even the most innovative, but they’re a solid addition to the YouTube interface that helps add a bit more quality and gloss to the overall bigger picture.
Now, that metaphorical picture can be witnessed from one’s TV screen. The YouTube platform across AndroidTV and GoogleTV will now feature preview thumbnails on auto basis, reports 9to5G. They can be initiated by highlighting a video and waiting for a few short seconds, after which the video will start. Thumbnails feature audio clips and they will only have a short few seconds worth of footage from the video, but that’s just about enough for users to decide whether or not a certain video is worth it. Of course, for some users, the new addition might be distracting or annoying. The audio clips themselves would just be jarring for many other users. Luckily, they can be deactivated from the Settings menu on either interface, so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Speaking of previews, yet another new feature that YouTube’s working on has a similar premise to it, as first spotted by @WFBrother. However, instead of videos, our subject of previews this time is the comment section.
Screenshots reveal that YouTube is currently in the process of A/B testing a new feature, in which comments can be seen under the thumbnails of videos. The screenshots have us assume that this feature is currently planned exclusively for the video streaming platform’s mobile version. This particular iteration of YouTube has thumbnails big enough to snugly fit in the top comment on a video right underneath, allowing users to judge video quality through yet another metric.
Read next: TikTok Focused Apps Receive Over 1.3 Billion Downloads
Previews on thumbnails have been a feature for quite a long time on YouTube. While they started out with the website, the mobile app got them in shortly after and it’s not difficult to see why. Previews help users gauge quality, tone, and content within a few short seconds. The overall appeal of a video can be gauged by users through just hovering their mouse over a video and waiting. Preview thumbnails may not be the most original feature to strike the internet, or even the most innovative, but they’re a solid addition to the YouTube interface that helps add a bit more quality and gloss to the overall bigger picture.
Now, that metaphorical picture can be witnessed from one’s TV screen. The YouTube platform across AndroidTV and GoogleTV will now feature preview thumbnails on auto basis, reports 9to5G. They can be initiated by highlighting a video and waiting for a few short seconds, after which the video will start. Thumbnails feature audio clips and they will only have a short few seconds worth of footage from the video, but that’s just about enough for users to decide whether or not a certain video is worth it. Of course, for some users, the new addition might be distracting or annoying. The audio clips themselves would just be jarring for many other users. Luckily, they can be deactivated from the Settings menu on either interface, so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Speaking of previews, yet another new feature that YouTube’s working on has a similar premise to it, as first spotted by @WFBrother. However, instead of videos, our subject of previews this time is the comment section.
Screenshots reveal that YouTube is currently in the process of A/B testing a new feature, in which comments can be seen under the thumbnails of videos. The screenshots have us assume that this feature is currently planned exclusively for the video streaming platform’s mobile version. This particular iteration of YouTube has thumbnails big enough to snugly fit in the top comment on a video right underneath, allowing users to judge video quality through yet another metric.
Read next: TikTok Focused Apps Receive Over 1.3 Billion Downloads