YouTube slammed for new 'useless changes' that only appear in iPhone app
You're confused by what the UI team is up to
Featured Image Credit: NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty
Some people are never satisfied, but when it comes to the tech scene, that's more obvious than ever.
Whether it's developers desecrating your favorite video game franchise, Apple zapping your battery life with the latest iOS update, or tech giants making ridiculous tweaks to their logo at a massive cost, companies are known for rattling their ever-vigilant customers for the strangest of reasons.
After there was backlash to Google subtly changing its iconic logo for the first time in a decade, YouTube is once again facing the ire of grouchy consumers. While we'll admit that a video autoplaying in full screen when you open the app is a pretty annoying update, it's harder to get on board with complaints about rounded edges on screens or changes to the hue of the progress bar.
The problem is, when users are paying $13.99 per month for YouTube Premium, it gives them an inflated sense of self that they should have a say in the app's user interface layout. Scroll through any YouTube thread on Reddit and you'll likely find someone grumbling about UI.
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After we thought the debacle surrounding YouTube changing its logo had died down, there's a fresh controversy to deal with.
Now, u/1014rxckerxXc is kicking off about a new change to the YouTube iPhone app, with three little dots appearing where you'd typically see dislikes or comment count. There's an admittedly more annoying tweak, with a pop-up ad apparently appearing to the side whenever you pause a video.
Asking why YouTube is making 'useless changes', the OP angrily ranted, "STOP MAKING STUPID CHANGES!!!"
The comments were filled with similar sentiments, as someone else raged: "Disgusting huge companies drop devs because they think everything has been made and don't think about the potential these devs got, so instead they get forced to do random sh*t like this and waste time."
Another mused: "The whole tech industry is based around useless changes. Windows 11 is basically Windows XP with many years of useless changes."
A third threw a conspiracy theory into the mix as they concluded: "I am convinced that the same 10 or so people are making UIs for every company these days. It's all tied back to the people who did both the Hulu (worst UI ever) and [Call of Duty] MW2 2022 (somehow worse) I just know it."
When someone suggested that it might be an issue with just the OP's app, they quickly apologized and said: "Edit: it's the app, appears on my iPhone in landscape mode but not on iPad. What a mess."
Although this appears to only be limited to the iPhone version of YouTube, that doesn't help the millions of us who use it to get our video content. Considering YouTube is consistently one of the most popular apps on the App Store, there are rightful questions about why these changes have been made when there's an ever-growing list of other things people want to be fixed.