YouTube Changes Video Player Design for the First Time in 10 Years — Users Are Outraged

Today marks exactly 20 years since the first video was uploaded to the YouTube platform. The current user interface design of the platform’s web video player has not changed for a whole decade, and to mark the anniversary, Google decided to change it. As expected, not all users were happy with it.

Image source: YouTube

The appearance of a new user interface for the web video player on the YouTube platform was reported by some users on the Reddit forum. Apparently, the update is not yet available to everyone. According to one user, the new interface of the YouTube player appeared on some videos that he launched from his second account. However, there are no changes on his main account yet. The new user interface of the YouTube player looks like this.

As you can see, the new interface contains buttons for each important action. The play/pause button, as well as the next button that follows it, the video timestamp and video chapters, have their own background. The volume adjustment button has been moved to the other side, and together with other action buttons (autoplay, subtitles, resolution settings, etc.) is highlighted with a common background.

Some users liked the new user interface of the YouTube web player, while others criticized it. Some were particularly unhappy with the new volume slider, but the images do not show what it looks like when expanded. It seems that the new volume slider does not allow you to simply hover over the button and change the volume with the mouse wheel or use the up/down keys on the keyboard.