YouTube Offers Ambient Mode, Precise Seeking, And Other Features: How to Use Them?

YouTube turned 17 years old on October 24, and the platform is offering multiple features as part of a visual revamp. The world's largest crowd-sourced video-sharing website is making it easier to watch the details of a video. The newly added features include Ambient Mode, Pinch To Zoom, Precise Seeking, and more. The changes are on the server side of YouTube, and they should be gradually available to users worldwide.

YouTube Turns On Ambient Mode and 'Darker' Mode

Many premium TVs have a feature that dynamically adjusts the background color to better suit the content being played on the screen. YouTube claims its mobile app now offers Ambient Mode. The feature attempts to create a more realistic and immersive viewing experience.

YouTube claims it uses dynamic color sampling to subtly change the color of the entire app's background to match the video being played. The platform added the feature to ensure, "viewers were drawn right into the content and the video takes an even greater focus" on the watch page.

👋 YouTube Creators

Summary of new updates...

-Ambient Mode
-Darker Dark Theme
-Rounded thumbs & buttons
-Sub & Member button update
-Playlists update
-Improved navigation from links

+ New Features:
-Pinch to zoom on videos
-Precise seeking (easier in video navigation) pic.twitter.com/xgE6ZIxtHt

— Jake Curtis (@JakeCurtis) October 24, 2022

The color YouTube picks is applied across the app, including the video playlists. Moreover, the app will now offer more information about the video being played such as view count and upload date.

YouTube is restricting the availability of the new Ambient Mode feature to the web and mobile apps, and it will be activated only when Dark Theme is enabled.
Incidentally, YouTube claims it has upgraded the Dark Theme to make it even darker. The new Darker Theme will be available on the web, mobile and smart TVs, and promises to offer deeper contrast and richer hues.

Some new @YouTube updates including ambient mode, updated dark theme, pinch to zoom (up to 8x!) and precise seeking to help you get to an exact part in a video https://t.co/p6N4rlLWbU

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 24, 2022

Pinch To Zoom Stays Zoomed

The Pinch To Zoom feature isn't a new one. In fact, millions of viewers regularly attempt to zoom into the video they are watching to try and observe finer details. However, the feature had a limitation, which YouTube has removed.

Users needed to keep their fingers firmly on the screen to ensure the zoomed-in video stays that way. Moving forward, whenever a video is zoomed in, it will stay that way.

YouTube has modified Pinch to Zoom to make it easier for viewers to continue watching the zoomed-in part. In other words, the video will remain zoomed in even after users release the pinch. The modified feature is available only on iOS and Android phones. It works as before, with the only difference being viewers can take their fingers off the screen without the video springing back to its original size.

YouTube Turns On Precise Seeking

As the name implies, Precise Seeking allows viewers to look for, and get to, any exact moments in video playback. This is an improvement on the navigation tools YouTube offers.

rounded corners on youtube thumbs:👍
"precise seeking":🔥 pic.twitter.com/9VXA1gmnxf

— Becca. (@BeccaFarsace) October 24, 2022

Users usually drag the slider to locate a moment in the video. Instead of holding and dragging the slide, viewers can also swipe up during the process. This will reveal a new row of thumbnails for each frame. Viewers can then select the exact part of the video by dragging their fingers.

It is interesting to note that YouTube Premium subscribers received these features first. However, the platform claims it received a lot of feedback, and it appears the majority suggested they be made available to everyone, like the 4K resolution.