YouTube today announced several updates to its television app — which is compatible with Roku, smart TVs, and Chromecast — as the platform continues to make a play for viewers’ living rooms, where CEO Susan Wojcicki said in May that watch-time has doubled year-over-year. Previously, YouTube had an open API enabling device makers to create their own TV apps, though the company started designing its own consistent interface in 2013.
In the latest version, as opposed to different content categories hidden within the menu bar, YouTube will now present viewers with 14 total content tabs at the top of the screen, Engadget reports, including sports, news, comedy, music, and entertainment. Below each of these categories is a “top stories” section featuring trending videos, as well as sub-categories. Under the gaming tab, for instance, there might be sections for Pokémon Go and Minecraft. Once a user selects a video within one of these groups, according to Engadget, autoplay becomes enabled.
Another part of the update, which is live today on all U.S. devices except Apple TV — for which Google maintains a separate app — is a live streams section. One designated tab shows users a variety of streams that are happening in real-time, Engadget reports, and another section enables users to search for broadcasts related to the aforementioned categories.
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YouTube last updated its TV app in August 2014 to give users a cleaner, more personalized experience, with a sidebar featuring subscriptions — just like the browser-based YouTube site — as well as playlists accessed by clicking on a channel in order to cut down on search time.
