YouTube App for Apple TV Receives Major Redesign

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The YouTube app for the Apple TV received a complete design overhaul today, introducing a new interface that's similar in design to the YouTube app for iOS, YouTube on the desktop, and the YouTube app for other television platforms.

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Rather than a single navigation bar at the top that links to sections like Search, Home, and Subscriptions, there's a new universal search bar that's easier to access along with dedicated categories like Recommended, Entertainment, Food, Music, Gaming, Technology, Comedy, and more, which makes it easier to find new content relevant to your interests.

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A navigation bar on the left side of the screen provides access to your subscriptions, library, and viewing history, and there's a new, more detailed settings section.

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While today's update lists 4K videos as "4K" in the video app, it does not appear that YouTube is supporting 4K content on the Apple TV at this time. When viewing details about a video, maximum available resolution is still listed as 1920 x 1080.

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Today's revamped YouTube Apple TV app comes just a few days after YouTube officially introduced its separate YouTube TV app for the Apple TV, allowing YouTube TV subscribers to access live content.

The new YouTube app for Apple TV is available now, and it can be installed by going to the YouTube app in the App Store and choosing "update" if it does not update automatically.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Tag: YouTube
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)
Related Forum: Apple TV and Home Theater

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Top Rated Comments

zorinlynx Avatar
zorinlynx
104 months ago
More like Apple still hasn't enabled 4k for YouTube since they refuse to support the royalty free VP9 codec, supporting only HEVC since they make money liscening it out to streaming services. Yet another example of the Apple Tax hard at work.
It's actually more a case of Google insisting on using VP9, when pretty much every other platform supports and uses h.264 (including Apple).

Google is expecting Apple to support an entirely new codec that doesn't have hardware decoding support in many chipsets. (VP9)

Apple is just expecting Google to use a codec that everybody else uses and has support on pretty much all hardware out there. (h.26x)

Google is the stubborn one here.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MagMan1979 Avatar
MagMan1979
104 months ago
And once again, Google shafts us with the fugly Material Design BS!!! If I wanted that garbage interface, I'd have gotten an Android smartphone or streamer box!!! FFS

Well Google does own YouTube. Apple didn’t make this app.
And yet, when Apple designs it's apps for the Android platform, it's respectful enough to port their designs and use the platform's native UI/UX, and not force iOS UI/UX on Android. And most reputable app developers will make their apps use the UI/UX native to the target app platform.

Stop defending Google's arrogance, it's sickening.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sputnikv Avatar
sputnikv
104 months ago
that’s horrible
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
shinyleaf Avatar
shinyleaf
104 months ago
This design looks like an Android app by Google.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
benji888 Avatar
benji888
104 months ago
Anything's got to be an improvement!
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
itsmilo Avatar
itsmilo
104 months ago
That UI looks very .... dated? Like something you would find on an old Nokia Symbian player but maybe its also the dark content in those samples distracting
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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