Before this update, you were greeted by a solid back status bar when you scrolled through the YouTube app’s Home and Subscription feeds.
But now, you will see video thumbnails underneath, and you also see notifications and status bar icons underneath for a more immersive experience. And visually, it’s also quite a pleasant update. The new change is also in line with Ambient mode in the video player.
Unfortunately though, if you’re at the top of the two feeds in question, it does not look seamless when you have system dark theme enabled.
The new status bar has been spotted on several devices running YouTube for Android version 19.37.25, both on Android 14 and Android 15. However, it is not yet fully available to everyone, so if you’re not seeing it yet, you’ll have to wait a bit to get it.
YouTube has been getting quite the updates recently, and it’s been spotted working on several exciting features as well. The video-sharing platform recently introduced a feature called “Hype”, which is meant to help emerging YouTube creators grow by connecting them to new audiences.
YouTube also recently introduced the ability to change (sort of) the header images of video playlists. Before the change, video playlist thumbnails were automatically picked (the thumbnail of the first video in the playlist was taken), but now you can change it with the help of generative AI.
Other changes to YouTube that have been on recently include a new Communities feature (which is being tested right now with a small number of creators and their fans), and a variety of protections for creators against videos and content generated from AI.
I personally am a big YouTube fan and I’ve probably invested countless hours of my life to watching YouTube videos… so I’m always thrilled when positive changes happen to the platform, even if they’re small visual tweaks like the transparent status bar or bigger changes like the Communities spaces.