YouTube Brings Guide Interface To Tablets, With Updates To Its Android App And Mobile Web

YouTube has been making a ton of updates to its UI lately, but the video-sharing platform isn’t quite ready to call it quits just yet. The company announced on its Google+ page today that it has updated its Android app and mobile web to better align those experiences with the most recent update to its homepage.

The big change is the addition of a Guide for navigating through videos from channels that users have subscribed to, as well as allowing users to discover new channels that they might not already know about. That will be added to the new YouTube Android app, as well as the mobile web site optimized for tablets, like the iPad.

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The update comes just a few days after YouTube launched a redesign of its website, seeking to provide easier access to channels. And the whole channel push is coming as the company seeks to provide more professional content, like that which it’s invested in through its Original Channels initiative, as well as through growing multichannel networks like Machinima or Maker Studios.

The end goal is to make the programming experience on YouTube more TV-like, providing more content that people can watch in longer, uninterrupted viewing sessions. That means moving the start of the YouTube experience from search to the YouTube homepage, while also extending viewing times. But it also means differentiating the experience by making the channels people watch more relevant to their interests. And, of course, doing all of that not just on the web, but also on as many devices as possible.