YouTube is testing a new version of Home Feed with a dark background for autoplay videos

YouTube has recently introduced the autoplay feature for videos listed in the main content feed, allowing you to simply view the list next to the clip that caught our attention.

Initially, the autoplay triggered without sound created some dissatisfaction, YouTube’s strategy to include the preview mode in the Home Feed during the total viewing time, causing rather confusion among users who discovered when accessing the video that playback does not start from the beginning. The compromise solution was to display subtitles for videos viewed directly from the Home Feed, with the idea of ​​helping users understand what it’s about even without sound.

Trying to sweeten the experience even further, YouTube is testing a more immersive version of the feature with the beta version of the mobile app, which provides automatic background darkening.

Automatically triggered when you stop on a clip in the Home Feed, immersive viewing comes with additional options for turning on / off sound, subtitles, saving to the Wach Later list and Next button. At the same time, a card with relevant information, such as the title of the video and the name of the YouTube channel, the number of views and the age of the video being watched, is added. As before, touching the image opens the clip page for normal viewing.

Tested with YouTube beta v17.10.35 for now, the new functionality could eventually be integrated with the official version of the app. For now, all we can say is that the changes tested with the YouTube beta version are somehow reminiscent of rival TikTok, trying to concentrate the viewing experience on a single content list, in which users can jump from one clip to another with a single gesture.