Tapping on things is so last year. At least, that's the way it seems as more and more mobile apps jump on the swipe-based navigation bandwagon.
YouTube is the latest app to enable the swipe, with an update expected to land on iOS devices at some point this week. Right now, there's no word on when this feature will become available to Android users.
The new update means that, when watching a video on the YouTube app, you will be able to play the next video by swiping left and right – left will take you back to the previous one, whereas swiping right will take you to the next recommended video.
If you swipe left to go to the previous video, it will even start playing where you left off, making navigation within the app more convenient than ever before.
Total swipeout
The new swipe-based navigation feature on YouTube will work in both portrait and landscape modes, and should make it easier to discover content you may not have previously bothered looking for.
With around 70% of YouTube users using the mobile app to watch their videos, it makes sense that the streaming platform would want to make navigation as seamless as possible.
In December, Google rolled out a feature for YouTube's mobile apps that automatically plays muted, subtitled previews of videos as you scroll through the home tab. YouTube Premium subscribers have had Autoplay on Home for several months, but it's now available to everyone.
In any case, it seems as though YouTube is working very hard indeed to encourage its users to spend even more time on its apps – and introducing swipe-based navigation could just do the trick.
