YouTube's New Desktop UI

[videogamesm12]

Google has pushed out a new update for YouTube's UI. Everything looks bulkier and it's like there's even less thought put into this UI than before. There are even inconsistencies in pop-up designs like the settings menu vs. the right click menu. I'd be lying if I said I was shocked about this, because YouTube has been pushing garbage UI changes for years at this point, but at this point I just don't care anymore.

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Ironically, I wasn't the one to first notice this or even bring it up in any tech circles to it this time around. Hell, I didn't even know it happened until a bunch of people in TotalFreedom's community experienced it and voiced their disdain for it both privately and publicly. So, how did the one person who usually notices and complains about whenever single pixel change in a program changes in a way I don't like? Well, it's because I dislike YouTube's JS-ridden, unoptimized, unresponsive, and sluggish front-end so much I actually installed a user script in my browser to replace it entirely with one that looks and acts like what the site was like in 2013 (with some quality-of-life changes). So for quite a while my UI has been like this instead.

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It's not even the nostalgia blinding me with this, the site is genuinely more responsive with this than the current UI. Don't believe me? See for yourself. If you expected this thread to be full of me screeching about how XYZ is different and therefore I don't like it, I'm afraid that ship sailed a while ago. It's easier and more productive to find a way to bring back older user interfaces and then do it than to complain online for ages about a single change that is eventually going to get worse with time.

Discuss.

 

[Telesphoreo]

I find it far easier to get used to it than to try and roll things back or make your own customizations. One day you'll wake up and YouTube has made even more changes and then you have to customize it again, likely at a time when it's not very convenient. I actually prefer to spend that time outside touching grass.

 

[Tizz]

it's like there's even less thought put into this UI than before

Bold of you to assume they put more thought than the bare minimum. Nowadays they probably just ask a generative AI.

 

[videogamesm12]

One day you'll wake up and YouTube has made even more changes and then you have to customize it again, likely at a time when it's not very convenient. I actually prefer to spend that time outside touching grass.

Surprisingly not. The extension completely replaces the front-end, making it immune to a lot of YouTube's UI-facing changes. Even despite a lot of the changes that have been thrown at people's way, it has stood firm. The only times it does experience issues as a result of changes, it's usually just a matter of updating the userscript or extension, and then it's back to business as usual. It's a pretty painless process which doesn't take that long for any of this, either.

 

[videogamesm12]

I disabled VORAPIS one time to get a particularly problematic video working and was greeted with this abomination of a UI change. What the hell is this???? Why are the videos and recommendations so disproportionately large compared to other UI elements? Why can I only see like 3 recommendations at a time now?



I didn't even know it was even possible for these guys to make it worse but wow, this is downright awful.

 

[windows9x_]

i dont like it, we must reject modernity and embrace the old youtube UI

 

[Tizz]

Why can I only see like 3 recommendations at a time now?

I guess you haven't tried the search pane yet.
You click on a video, you're sent to an automated playlist.

 

[Telesphoreo]

I guess you haven't tried the search pane yet.
You click on a video, you're sent to an automated playlist.
View attachment 738

YouTube's search is absolute fucking dogshit nowadays. If you try and search for something, you'll only get like 3 results. The rest are just random videos that have nothing to do with your search query.