After cross-device downloads, YouTube is testing a new feature for its web version that could allow users to manage autoplay videos more efficiently. According to a report by Android Police, YouTube is testing a new autoplay UI on the web. In addition, YouTube also seems to have added interest tabs to help users fine-tune video recommendations.
The new autoplay UI on the web puts the autoplay toggle within the video player next to the closed caption button in the playback control bar. The autoplay button was previously placed above the recommended videos in the right column on the web. Notably, the YouTube mobile app already has the autoplay toggle inside the video player, a change that was rolled out recently.
The change will likely make it easier for people to turn on/off recommended videos directly from the video player. The feature could prove to be useful especially when playing videos in full-screen mode. The other change is interest tabs that will have videos based on the user’s interest or related topics. Do note that the ‘All’ tab is selected by default, but users can browse from other interest tabs as well.
The features do not seem to roll out for everyone and only some users can access the change. However, it is expected that the changes will roll out for other users as well soon.
Prior to this, YouTube tested a cross-device download feature meant for YouTube Premium users, though for a brief period. It is supposed to help users easily take care of downloaded videos on multiple devices. This was reported by Android Police. The ‘Cross device offline settings’ was spotted in the ‘Background and download’ setting option as part of YouTube Premium’s stable and beta versions, 15.49.34 and 15.50.32, respectively.
A similar feature was spotted in 2018 as well by the website but it was slightly different as neither did the videos get downloaded automatically nor there was a prompt to get the videos downloaded at that time. This means that the feature could still be in progress or might not even launch at all.
