Yesterday YouTube turned 12 years old and to celebrate they started to roll out a new version of YouTube.com
The site design is built on a new, faster framework named Polymer, which enables quicker feature development from here on out. And today, YouTube rolled out one of the first new features developed on Polymer: Dark Theme. Developed to cut down on glare and let you take in the true colors of the videos you watch, Dark Theme turns your background dark throughout your entire YouTube experience. This is only the beginning and Google says you can look forward to more powerful new features coming soon.
“Things that get built once can then be reapplied more quickly,” explains Manuel Bronstein, VP of Product Management at YouTube, of Polymer. “It’s less about a particular feature, and it’s more about the velocity of which things can be brought to market. This then enables us to explore and then do more things,” he told Tech Crunch.
Google says that the new Material Design will make YouTube:
- Simplicity: The only thing you should be concerned about is watching the content you love. The new design is clean and fresh, thanks to the removal of visuals that can distract from your browsing or watching experience. We’re focused on making the content shine!
- Consistency: The new design is aligned across Google platforms, including the YouTube mobile app, while still providing the features you know and love.
- Beauty: We strive to combine beauty and purpose to create an effortless experience.
If you want to try out YouTube’s latest look, you can opt-in to preview the new design at youtube.com/new. You can return to the current design by selecting “Restore classic YouTube” from the Account Menu.
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