YouTube app for iOS now lets you swipe through videos like you swipe on Tinder

YouTube for iOS is now turning into a Tinder-like game of swipes, and you're going to love it.

Tech2 News Staff|Jan 16, 2019, 14:16:48 IST

This is not good for our social media addiction.

via GIPHYAs if we weren't already addicted enough to animal videos on YouTube, the platform has rolled out a brand new feature on iOS, that will make shutting the app all the more difficult.YouTube has started rolling out a new way to navigate through its videos on the iOS app: by swiping.

Internally, YouTube calls this feature “swipey watch” (cute!), that has apparently been in works for some two years now. With the feature, instead of tapping to move between the videos, YouTube app users can now swipe left to see the video they were just watching, and swipe right to move to the next recommendation in the queue.Additionally, if you make a partial swipe (dragging the video partially left or right, without fully swiping to the next or previous video) you’ll see a sneak peek of the next or previous video. The current video you’re watching will continue to play with audio.Motivation? Ease of use, of course.[caption id="attachment_5905161" align="alignnone" width="1024"]

YouTube iOS App. Image: tech2/Nandini Yadav[/caption]Currently, YouTube users have to actively tap to move between videos, both on the site and on the app.The swipey watch feature is rolling out only to iOS users as of now. There is no word when the Android app will get this feature, or if at all it will. We will update this space as soon as we know more about that.Tinder was probably the first app out there that explored the swiping functionality and got it popular (and how!).Last year, App Partner shared a very interesting report on how the psychology of swiping in apps work. The report suggests, "Unlike other means of executing commands, like pressing a digital button or link, swiping is a much faster motion and quickly becomes almost subconscious. Particularly for apps that require quick browsing functionality, swiping can be key to retaining the user’s attention." And isn't that true?