YouTube is rolling out a redesigned Home interface for the iOS and Android app. The new design is cleaner and simpler, but also takes advantage of deep neural networks to better recommend videos for users to watch.
The refreshed Home tab might not look new to some users as YouTube has been A/B testing the design for a while now. Home features large, high resolution thumbnails and prominent icons that highlight the creator for each video. The new thumbnails also pop up for a brief second when opening a clip in order to give the video a chance to buffer in the background.
YouTube’s screenshots also show a new upload icon that lets users record video right from the YouTube app instead of only being able to upload a previously recorded clip.
Under the hood, the new Home tab should deliver more relevant and personalized recommendations. According to Google, the new recommendations system is based on deep neural network technology that should “find patterns automatically and keep learning and improving as it goes.”
In addition to suggesting new videos, the system will do a better job of surfacing content from your Subscriptions. According to YouTube, those who already have the new interface spend more time watching fresh videos and subscribed to content. Recommendations work in 76 languages and YouTube notes that it already recommend hundreds of millions of different videos from the Home tab every day.
The redesigned and smarter Home tab is rolling out to iOS and Android starting today.
