Improvements Coming for YouTube App With Better Smart TV Controls

Google is rolling out a cool new feature in YouTube for iOS that will make it even easier to immerse yourself in the experience of enjoying YouTube on your Apple TV or smart TV.

Earlier this year, YouTube announced that it would soon provide a way for viewers to use their iPhone as a second screen while watching YouTube on the big screen, providing a more straightforward method for reading and leaving comments or sharing videos with a friend.

While the YouTube apps for tvOS and most smart TVs already offer these features, most would agree that it’s a clunky experience at best. YouTube on your smart TV, set-top box, or game console is great for watching videos, but that’s about it.

So, in a clever move to simplify things, YouTube is now rolling out a new feature that will automatically link up your iPhone with the YouTube app on your TV, so you can immediately pull up the details and comments on your mobile device to match whatever you’re watching on the TV.

We know remote controls can be difficult to use and navigate with, most TVs don’t have web browsers built in, and you generally have less space to work with since you’re always watching video in a full screen experience.YouTube

While this may sound like using AirPlay or YouTube’s own ‘casting feature, it’s actually the opposite. You open the YouTube app on your TV and start playing a video like you normally would, and while it’s playing, you can open YouTube on your iPhone to be taken to the video’s page.

This doesn’t require any special protocols to communicate between your iPhone and your TV. There’s no Bluetooth or even Wi-Fi involved. Instead, it all happens in the cloud. Speaking with The Verge, YouTube’s Kurt Wilms explained that your iPhone doesn’t even have to be on the same Wi-Fi network as your TV, as it’s the YouTube account where the magic happens.

The beautiful thing about this feature is there’s no protocols. Your TV doesn’t have to be on the Wi-Fi network. Your phone doesn’t have to be on the Wi-Fi network!” It’s not even your devices that are syncing, really; it’s your YouTube account across devices.Kurt Wilms, director of product management for YouTube on TV

As long as you’re signed in to the same YouTube account, you’ll see a “Connect” button when opening YouTube on your iPhone while a video is playing on your TV. Tapping on that will let you do all the things with the YouTube video that are usually too annoying to bother with from the TV remote, such as liking, commenting, subscribing, queuing up other videos, and more. You can even support your favorite creators by sending a Super Chat or becoming a member, all while the video continues playing on your TV.

The living room is one of YouTube’s more important targets. The latest statistics show that folks now watch 700 million hours of YouTube video every day on their TVs, with 135 million users in the U.S. tuning in at least once a day.

Sadly, as much as people like to watch YouTube in their living room, the company knows that they’re not getting the full experience. Rather than complicating matters by building a fancier streaming device, YouTube realized that since 88 percent of Americans watch TV with a phone or tablet in their hand, it became apparent that the real solution was to make better use of the tools that viewers already had.

However, Google doesn’t plan to stop there. It’s already testing new designs for the watch page and looking at folding in “more uniquely YouTube features,” such as browsing and shopping for products featured in videos on YouTube.