YouTube app is updated with a new Library tab UI

In the past few months, numerous Google apps have received significant design modifications, from a new Material Design 3 account switcher to changes in the bottom bar and web interface. However, despite being a Google product, YouTube continues to be in a class by itself. The Library tab in the YouTube app for Android has finally undergone a noticeable graphic update, sort of bucking this trend.

What’s new in the update?

A grid with larger album covers has just replaced lists in the library tab on YouTube Music by Google. As spotted by 9to5Google, the main YouTube app now offers horizontally scrolling carousels for your watch history and playlists to keep up with the trend. The unwatched video count and like counter, respectively, are displayed in the playlist thumbnails for the Watch Later and Liked videos. The first video in the list is typically used as the thumbnail in all other playlists by default.

Compared to the previous version of the app, which showed history as a single menu option under the library tab and then displayed all the playlists for the selected account in a long, vertically scrolling list, this is a startling change. Long-time users of the YouTube app will likely like this update because the new layout always has View All next to the carousel. Similar to the previous user interface, this operation expands your watch list or playlist collection into a list that scrolls vertically.

The library tab’s user interface is generally simpler and provides a condensed view of all the stuff it did in the past. The option to make a new playlist is now buried near the bottom of the carousel rather than at the top of the vertically scrolling list, which makes it awkward to do. However, since YouTube has already begun rolling out the new UI, it is too late to correct that in this release. It is visible on several of our devices, so it might do so soon on yours as well.