New improvements to the YouTube Music app’s Now Playing section may be on the way, more than a year after YouTube last changed it. Multiple reports from Reddit users and 9to5Google suggested that YouTube Music’s Now Playing page was undergoing a big overhaul, with buttons shifting around and a new-look scrubber. Android Central can confirm the test personally because the revised Now Playing panel has surfaced on at least one of our devices.
Previously, the action carousel was displayed directly beneath the song title, artist, and album artwork. This carousel provides visitors with buttons for likes, dislikes, comments, sharing, and more. However, the new test places the primary playback buttons, such as play/pause, forward/rewind, and shuffle/loop, just beneath the song title and artist name.
The test places the Now Playing buttons and song details closer to the screen’s center. It also moves them further away from the bottom of the screen, perhaps causing reachability concerns while using your phone one-handed.
This is a particular issue for YouTube Music, which features an actions carousel that moves the primary Now Playing buttons up or down the screen. Other streaming apps, such as Spotify and Apple Music, do not have this issue because they do not have an activities carousel or similar feature.
In addition, the timeline has been modified to reflect the main YouTube app. It is now a rectangle with no apparent dot for the scrubber. If you try to skip or go back along the timeline by holding and dragging, the scrubber will show instead. It’s a more simple style that will be familiar if you’ve used other Google timeline scrubbers.
Of course, as the Now Playing buttons are raised, the actions carousel must be moved down. It is now located between the Up Next/lyrics/related buttons at the bottom of the screen and the main Now Playing buttons.
While these changes may take some getting accustomed to, it’s been a while since YouTube Music changed its Now Playing screen, so perhaps it was time for a few tweaks. For the time being, this appears to be a limited test, and it is unclear when it will be made available to all YouTube Music users. You might have to wait and hope for luck, like the YouTube Music users who received their Rewind stats early.
