If you’ve been using the YouTube app on a big screen TV, you may have noticed a few changes in the last few days: a new sound and animation that pops up when you launch the app, and an option to show comments next to what you’re watching.
The sound is official and YouTube has covered it in great detail in blog post (opens in a new tab). Something “alive, immersive and easily recognizable” was needed, so YouTube enlisted the help of sound studio Antfood to get the right audio snippet.
According to YouTube, the three-second clip goes from “rich, pitch-bending tones that signify YouTube’s irresistible gravitational pull” to a major seventh chord that “represents the way YouTube lets you discover the things you really love” – and the sound and animation will over time appear in more YouTube apps.
The second change to the YouTube TV app is not official, but it has been spotted Reddit (opens in a new tab) (by Android police (opens in a new tab)) and allows you to view comments. Here at TechRadar, we also saw the feature appear on YouTube on an Android TV.
While watching videos, you have the option to view comments in the sidebar on the right. It can be useful for those videos that have a lot of discussion below the line you want to check out, but you still need to launch the mobile app if you want to reply to comments or add your own.
So far, YouTube has not confirmed that the comments feature is in testing, but it is clearly visible to some users. Whether or not it will eventually roll out to everyone watching YouTube on TV remains to be seen.
Analysis: eyeball tracking on YouTube
Most of the changes to YouTube and similar apps are aimed at keeping more eyes on the app for longer – which of course increases engagement and ad revenue. These latest updates may not seem very significant, but they can still make quite a difference.
Netflix’s launch sound and animation are so well known that it’s called Netflix’s annual content showcase. YouTube will hope so own introductory clip (opens in a new tab) becomes as familiar to viewers and becomes as famous as its static logo.
Adding comments will have a greater impact on the actual viewing experience as this is where many of the key discussions and debates surrounding the video take place. For some clips, the comments are as interesting as the content itself.
It’s worth pointing out that comments can be turned on and off, at least based on our testing – you won’t have to go through all of them if you don’t want to. We’ll have to wait and see what YouTube says officially about this change when the time comes.