YouTube’s Android app update brings annoying bugs and gestures

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A recent YouTube update introduced granular playback speed controls, but instead of enhancing user experience, it’s causing major headaches with two significant bugs that are disrupting the app’s functionality.

According to users in a YouTube Reddit thread, these issues involve a mini-player and some weird playback glitch. The mini-player, highlighted by Reddit user a1200i (via Android Police), causes the mini-player to disappear when moved to the right side of the screen. 

The mini-player exits the screen and reappears when the video thumbnail is tapped again. However, this issue hasn’t been replicated in YouTube’s latest stable and beta builds.

Youtube mobile won't let me watch videos outside of full-screen view
byu/zomby_c inyoutube

User zomby_c found a bug with video playback in portrait mode. If you start a video in portrait mode, switch to full-screen landscape, and pause it, the video won’t play again when you go back to portrait mode. To resume playback, you have to return to full-screen mode.

Both issues reportedly surfaced following the November 7 update, indicating possible oversights in YouTube’s testing.

One user mentioned that reverting to an older YouTube version fixed the issue, although some users may prefer to wait for an official YouTube patch. 

The YouTube product team is fucking the gestures in the Android app one after another.

Who the fuck wants to scroll on a long form video? It was more useful to minimize/maximize videos.

As if fucking the in-app PiP wasn't satisfying enough to whoever is getting off this. pic.twitter.com/1jY0XFbiMW

— Tushar Mehta (@thetymonbay) November 11, 2024

Separately, Tushar Mehta on X (formerly Twitter) pointed out another change: YouTube on Android now uses a scroll gesture to control the fullscreen video player for long-form videos, replacing the traditional swipe-up and down gestures. 

Swiping down in landscape mode now plays the next video instead of minimizing the player, similar to YouTube Shorts. Unfortunately, it would be best if you dealt with these changes and bugs until further updates address them.

Are you an Android user feeling the pinch of YouTube’s latest update? We’d love to know your thoughts, whether it’s the pesky miniplayer glitch, the frustrating playback issues, or the new gesture changes. How are these changes affecting your YouTube experience? Drop a comment below.