YouTube Mobile Apps Get New Swiping Gesture For Skipping Videos

YouTube is pushing out updates for its Android and iOS apps that bring a new swiping gesture. With this change, users are able to swipe on the screen in order to quickly jump forward or back to different videos — either to the next recommended video or the last one they were watching. The change comes at a time when the vast majority of YouTube viewers watch on mobile.

YouTube boasts more than a billion users, around 70-percent of whom use a mobile device to watch videos. Unlike watching on a TV, which provides traditional remote control, watching on mobile comes with its own navigation features and issues. YouTube has slowly transformed its mobile product to better accommodate viewing on a smartphone.

YouTube's mobile apps have received a number of big features over the past couple years, including new baked in messaging and sharing features, a dark mode, its own Stories feature, a dark viewing mode, and more.

Likewise, YouTube has slowly introduced gesture-based control via double-tapping to skip forward or backward through a small part of a video. With its latest update, the service is building upon that by allowing users to swipe left on the video screen to immediately start the next recommended video.

Don't like what you see? Swipe right and you'll be taken back to the previous video, which will start where you last watched. Unfortunately, only iOS users will get to enjoy this new streamlined video toggling feature, at least in the immediate future — it's arriving on Apple's devices this week, but there's no time frame provided for an Android launch.