YouTube Reportedly Testing New Vertical Scrolling Gestures for Mobile Apps, Leaving Users Unhappy

YouTube is testing new vertical scrolling gestures for its mobile app that could change the way users navigate and consume content on the platform, according to social media claims. The video streaming platform is reportedly testing a change in the outcome of swipe up and down gestures when full-screen mode is toggled on the YouTube app. Notably, this development comes after YouTube for Android and iOS reportedly rolled out the ability to control video playback speed in more complex ways.

Currently, swiping up on any video on YouTube’s mobile app toggles full-screen mode, while swiping down returns it to the default view. Additionally, it also allows users to view videos from suggested, for you or related tabs by swiping up when full-screen view is enabled. The functionality of these gestures should now be changed.

In a job On X (formerly Twitter), user Tushar Mehta (@thetymonbay) highlighted new vertical swipe gestures currently being tested by YouTube. If the proposed changes come to fruition, swiping up on any video will automatically send the user to the next video, instead of narrowing it to the default view. This is said to work similarly to scrolling gestures on YouTube Shorts.

Additionally, swiping up when the playback controls overlay is on the screen will bring up a scroll window, allowing the user to scroll through the video frame by frame. However, this change is reportedly under testing and has not been implemented on the current version of the YouTube mobile app.

Although this change is not official, X users don’t seem to like it. “It’s so frustrating. Frustrating enough to make me go to Twitter to see if I’m the only one annoyed,” one user commented.