Can you zoom in and out on YouTube videos?

From music videos to watching your favourite gamer or fail army clips, YouTube has witnessed a number of upgrades since its launch in 2005 but, following its 17th birthday earlier this year, the company decided to further refine its look and feel, unveiling two of the updates that could change how you use YouTube.

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After multiple requests, YouTube finally introduced the option to zoom in and out on a video. What’s better is that letting go of the screen doesn’t automatically zoom the video out. This means you can enjoy a zoomed-in video without the hassle of having to keep your fingers on your screen for the entire video.

Precise seeking is also a potential game-changer. Available for both web and mobile, the feature allows you to view a number of thumbnails of your video in the video player. This is particularly helpful when you want to find a specific part of your video.

A facelift

These powerful video utilities may overshadow the work YouTube has done to freshen its interface.

YouTube’s UX director, Nate Koechley, released a blog today that outlined the platform’s makeover.

The changes start with Ambient Mode. By utilizing dynamic color sampling, the mode subtly adds the overall color of the video you’re watching to the app background. The aim is to increase focus and draw the user’s attention to their device. Ambient Mode also assists in adding vibrancy to the screen without turning it into a distraction. It’s available on both the web and mobile and can be enabled by turning on Dark theme.

Dark theme also saw an upgrade in terms of its shade. It’s now darker than before in an attempt to make your video stand out even more. This feature is coming to the web mobile and even Smart TVs.

The video player is also getting an upgrade intended to reduce some of the clutter. YouTube links in video descriptions that currently look rather messy and all over the place will be transformed to look like buttons. The current like, share, and download buttons will be reformatted to give them a cleaner look. Moreover, the big, red subscribe button will be getting a new color, shape, and contrast level. Again, the goal is for it to stand out more than it already does.

Once you’ve checked out the update, you might want to learn how to upload your own YouTube content. Start with this guide.