YouTube is reportedly testing a change to gesture controls for fullscreen videos that not all users are a fan of.
While YouTube remains one of the best streaming services, there's no doubt the app has made some poor decisions recently. For instance, longer ads, ads appearing during pause screens and the increased price of Premium, have turned more than a few people off. While all of these changes are annoying, they at least don't affect how we control the app.
However, a recent post on X by Tushar Mehta has displayed a possible change to gesture controls to fullscreen videos on Android devices that could cause some real frustration
According to the post, users will be able to scroll between videos while watching a video in horizontal fullscreen by swiping up or down. If this change is accurate then it would mean that YouTube videos would function more like YouTube shorts or Instagram reels.
Now, this alone wouldn't be an issue, but the problem is that swiping up or down is already a gesture; it allows you to exit fullscreen on your device.
I can see YouTube's thought process here, as it allows for more seamless viewing rather than having to move out of fullscreen to select the next video. On the other hand, while taking muscle memory into account, I can see why this would annoy more people. I'm already getting annoyed by just envisioning trying to exit fullscreen, only to move to another video and another set of ads.
However, we should take this with a pinch of salt as there are many factors that can affect what people see. For instance, a recent post on X hinted that YouTube could be getting rid of the date of production and the view count for videos on the Home Screen. The reaction to the news was negative, but YouTube soon made a statement that this was never a plan, and the poster was experiencing this due to certain browser extensions.
For the time being, we can only wait and see if the best Android phones are saddled with this change and what the fallout will be.
