In addition to its currently-in-testing ‘Featured In This Video’ tool, which automatically promotes video collaborators above a clip’s description box, YouTube is also testing out a revamped design of its in-development ‘Explore‘ tab on iOS and Android.
The Explore tab — which replaces the ‘Trending’ tab at the bottom of the home screen for users involved in the test — aims to help users more easily discover new videos and channels across topics like fashion, music, and gaming, the company said on its Support forum. (Notably, YouTube operates standalone content hubs for each of these verticals).
“Trending isn’t going away, and will have its own section in Explore,” the company wrote. “We also want to better support growing/emerging YouTube channels, so we’re testing a design where ‘Creator’ and ‘Artist On The Rise’ will be more prominent.” (Per the standard version of the YouTube app, Creator On The Rise and Artist On The Rise shelves appear in the Trending tab, and serve to promote up-and-coming video creators and musicians).
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The new Explore tab design features colorful tiles for topics rather than monochrome icons, per Android Police. The On The Rise shelves have also been made more prominent as evidenced in a screen grab courtesy of the outlet, below.
YouTube first began testing an Explore feature in July 2018 — though this update builds upon those initial experiments with a new design. The first Explore tab test, only involving 1% of users, appeared at the bottom of the app’s iOS homescreen and generated content based on what viewers are already watching — but with a broader scope than recommendations that already appear in the ‘Home’ tab. In February, YouTube rolled out the test to Android devices and desktops, and added the On the Rise components.
