A makeover of the Now Playing screen has been under test by YouTube Music since November 2024. The thumbs up and down buttons on YouTube Music have been moved, however it hasn’t been implemented yet and is currently in transition.
The play/pause, next/last, shuffle, and repeat control lines are located beneath the song name and artist in contrast to the existing design from 2023. The timeline is now blockier to resemble the main YouTube app, although it still stays in the centre. The Song/Video switcher moves down there as well, and the final line is the carousel with different functions. That modification was initially made by YTM in February.
With YouTube Music’s most recent Now Playing design, the carousel’s thumbs up/down is displayed. They are now two round buttons to the right of the song name and artist, rather than a joint pill.
This seems visually disorganized and unbalanced to me. One benefit is that, depending on your screen, the carousel can display more with the options to Comment, Save, Video, Share, and Download visible without swiping.
In recent months, a lot of A/B testing has been done on this Now Playing overhaul. There have been occasional accounts of someone losing it.
In the meantime, YouTube Music just introduced a shortcut that allows you to swipe right on a song to select “Play next” on album and playlist pages. You can add to the playlist by swiping left.
