YouTube now has a “Play Something” button, but not all users have it yet

YouTube is testing a “Play Something” feature in its Android app that allows a user to play a random video by clicking on a floating button located just above the bottom bar of the app, The Verge reported.

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Like earlier versions of the feature previously tested by YouTube, the new button uses YouTube Shorts’ portrait-oriented player, according to the source. This happens regardless of whether the selected video is a vertically formatted Shorts video or a standard YouTube video.

The content is played in a mini-player, where on the right side of the screen there are large buttons for marking “Like”, “Dislike”, adding comments and the “Share” function. When you launch the mini-player, the Play Something button disappears.

We can only hope that by the time the function is officially launched, video playback will occur in a format that matches its orientation and content. Other implementations of the feature, which the company has been testing for more than a year, include a banner that says “Play something” and a standard button featuring the black-and-white YouTube logo.

Last year, streaming service Netflix stopped working on a similar video randomization feature called Surprise Me, originally launched in 2021 under the name Play Something.