What you need to know
- YouTube Music is rolling out with a new UI for the Now Playing screen.
- The UI adds a row of options to easily interact with a song, including a section for comments.
- Album art is also larger and song titles are now aligned to the left.
YouTube Music has been going through quite a number of changes lately, and the latest one makes the streaming service a little more like YouTube, for better or for worse.
9to5Google spotted the new Now Playing UI rolling out to YouTube Music, which now includes larger album art that takes up a bit more of the screen. Underneath it is a horizontal row of menu items, which now houses the like and dislike buttons. You’ll also find the option to save a song to a playlist, share a song, download a track, or activate the radio based on the current song playing, options that were previously (and still are) available when tapping the album art.
However, the most interesting change is that the new menu includes comments, which allow listeners to add a comment straight from YouTube Music or view other comments left from the main YouTube service.
Image 1 of 2
Comments aren’t always available to view, which likely has to do with whether or not they’re enabled on the YouTube video.
Still, the new YouTube Music UI mirrors that of the main YouTube app with a row of pill-shaped buttons, which adds a level of uniformity between them. The three-dot menu in the top corner remains, where you can find more options like viewing song credits, but this makes it easier to access some frequently-used functions. Song titles are also aligned to the left, whereas they were previously centered, and the song controls have been shifted down toward the bottom of the UI.
This isn’t the first time the comment section has been spotted on YouTube Music, as the streaming service was spotted testing comments back in June. According to 9to5, the new Now Playing UI is rolling out to YouTube Music on Android and iOS.
Other changes recently made to YouTube Music include the new Samples tab for discovering new songs with a TikTok-like UI and the addition of live lyrics.