YouTube Starts Rolling Out New Website Design, Dark Mode

YouTube has started to invite its users to preview a new design of its website, which includes a dark mode suitable for nighttime viewing.

The design is also more closely aligned to the look and feel of YouTube’s mobile apps, with YouTube product manager Brian Marquardt promising more consistency across platforms in an announcement blog post.

“Starting today, we’re opening up a preview of the new design to a small group of people from all around the world so we can get feedback,” Marquardt wrote Tuesday. “While we hope you’ll love what we’ve been working on, we’re also really excited to involve the YouTube community so we can make the site even better before sharing it more broadly.”

Users interested in the preview could briefly sign up for it on a special web page Tuesday, but YouTube quickly closed the sign-up after reaching an undisclosed threshold. The Google-owned video site promised to invite additional users in the coming weeks, and plans to eventually make the new look available to all users.

In addition to a night mode, which replaces the white website background with a black theme that’s less jarring when used in low-light situations, the new YouTube also uses a somewhat cleaner design. Two separate menus are being merged into one, and individual menu items are spaced more generously, giving the whole site a lighter look and feel.

But one of the biggest changes may be under the hood: YouTube now uses Polymer, a new scripting technology that’s meant to simplify web development. The result could be that YouTube might be able to change up its site more easily in the future.
refer from-variety

YouTube opens mobile live streams to those with 10k+ fans, paid Super Chat exits beta

Google’s video powerhouse YouTube is today taking its latest step to compete with Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope to be the go-to platform for live video streaming, specifically of the unscripted, on-the-fly kind.

YouTube today is turning on live video recording directly from its mobile app for creators who have at least 10,000 subscribers. And on top of this it’s taking Super Chat — a service where viewers can pay to bump up their comments in the stream — out of beta. Now, live video creators with over 1,000 subscribers in 20 countries can turn it on, and viewers from 40 can pay to promote their pearls of wisdom.

The opening up of YouTube mobile live streaming comes about six months after Google first turned on the feature for a select number of users (such as Lewis of Unbox Therapy and athlete-turned-YouTuber Ben Brown). In a blog post, product managers Barbara Macdonald and Kurt Wilms write that the feature will soon be rolled out even more widely, beyond the 10,000 follower mark set today.

As with the more limited roll out, the live streaming feature is built into the app, where you will be able to snap a cover picture, and then press another button to start recording. Once the live video is over, YouTube visitors will be able to discover them just like they would any other video (and you the creator can also set up privacy features as you would for any other video).

One thing that’s different with the version of live streams on mobile going live today is that YouTube will slow down live chat. “It turns out receiving 2,000 messages per second is a little too fast!” Macdonald and Wilms write. They also note that they’ve also worked on improving streaming quality across a wider range of devices.

YouTube likes to remind us that it has been a notable platform for people to watch live streams since 2011, with events like Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking skydive in 2012 attracting 8 million live viewers on the platform; and more recently, the U.S. elections seeing millions come to YouTube to watch debates and other events as they unfold.

The difference here is the emphasis on videos recorded by YouTubers and everyday people with mobile devices, an area where YouTube has been slow to move.

Instead, services like Facebook’s Live and Periscope (and the now-defunct Meerkat) were quicker to tap into the confluence of faster mobile networks, better devices, and willing audiences of viewers and creators that have a taste for improvised video, to create content that has set a standard for live, unscripted streams.

(It’s notable too that Facebook launched its Live product as a mobile app-first effort in 2015 (the same year that Periscope also emerged) and only turned on a web-originated version last month.)

However, the significance of YouTube finally making a move to expand live vide streams on mobile is that it’s far and away the world’s biggest platform for online video today, with over 1 billion users (nearly one-third of all internet users) visiting at least once a day.

And the fact that more than half of those visits are on mobile means that there is a ready and willing audience of creators and consumers for live streams made on mobile.

While broadcast TV has died a little in the age of on-demand content, it’s services like this, created on platforms the size of YouTube, that have a shot of resuscitating live video popularity for today’s consumers and creators.

super-chat-youtube…and, it might be added, advertisers. YouTube — like Facebook — has been playing with a lot of different formats for how best to monetize video — from autoplaying videos interspersed with ads to adding “midroll” ads during a single video” on its platform — and today marks a wider launch of another revenue-generating feature.

Creators making live videos on desktop or mobile can now turn on Super Chat for comments. Launched in a beta version last month, Super Chat will let viewers pay some money to boost their comments and pin them to the top of the pile for some time — the degree of the boost and pin will depend on how much a commenter is willing to pay. (It’s not unlike the Cheering feature that launched on Twitch last year.) Creators will be responsible for moderating their own Super Chats, as they do their live chats, YouTube notes.

It also looks like YouTube splits revenues for Super Chat in the same way that it does for AdSense, as you can track your revenues from them in the AdSense dashboard.

Perhaps one of the most interesting things about Super Chat is that it lays the groundwork for paying for a whole lot of other things during live streams, and also helps motivate creators to make more of these live streams as part of their bigger business efforts.

YouTube Launches In-App Messaging carrier That Lets customers Share and discuss videos

YouTube has launched a preview of in-app messaging provider on its Android and iOS apps - alternatively, for now, it is just to be had for customers in Canada. the brand new in-app messaging will permit customers to share clips, hyperlinks, textual content, and perhaps video too. customers in other regions can get entry to the function by means of invite. ultimate year in may just, YouTube had established it was testing the characteristic with limited customers.

In a blog submit on Google Canada's website online, there's a video the place the new characteristic has been shown as how this in-app messaging function works. which you could share a video with a couple of customers, chat with them, invite more customers, and even reply with additional YouTube video hyperlinks. moreover, there can be a 'heart' inside the chat thread to precise a like for a video or a message. YouTube videos will play throughout the chat window, without customers having to leave it. "not most effective are you able to share and obtain movies in the app, that you could also chat about them right on YouTube, reply with any other video, invite others to the conversation, and more." read the Google weblog.

YouTube had in brief tested this feature in may just ultimate year without any further small print for its rollout. It used to be also restrained just for a few users who were a part of YouTube's trying out process. This time YouTube has best chosen Canada for the rollout of this selection below a brand new Sharing tab. Google has mentioned in its weblog post that Canadians share 15 percent more videos than an ordinary YouTube user, so it can be truthful that they should see characteristic previous than all and sundry else.

however if you're not in Canada and yet are using this selection, you may also want an invitation from a chum who is already the use of this provider. that could very nearly happen if your buddy resides in Canada, they add you to their chat, or share a video on this type. After being brought, that you would be able to share and chat with others as neatly.

the theory behind the YouTube messaging feature is to inspire users to stay inside the YouTube app for sharing and conversing over a particular video, with no need to switch between the other apps. the brand new in-app messaging function is set to compete with fb's video carrier the place that you may remark, like, share, reply to feedback and even privately share video with others. this feature is continue to exist YouTube's Android app and its iOS counterpart as neatly in Canada.