TikTok has revolutionized the way we watch videos, but there is one detail that other short video creation platforms cannot ignore: swipe up. When Instagram released its TikTok clone, Reels, it included the swipe-up design detail. This is a key aspect that makes this imitation so popular, and the same is true for YouTube Shorts. As we all know, all these platforms are mostly used for vertical videos. Now, it seems that the YouTube app itself is testing this “swipe up” gesture in its default video player despite it being set for horizontal videos.
Digital Trends contributor Tushar Mehta was the first to spot the change and posted about it on X. He said that he noticed the change in the app on his Android phone and asked who would want to “scroll through a long video.” Good question, right? Combining the sentiment of Mehta’s tweet with the headline of an Android Authority article about this potential change, “YouTube is testing the worst change ever in its Android app,” the general consensus is that people aren’t excited about the change. One user responded to Mehta’s post on X: “It makes me want to check Twitter to see if I’m the only one who’s annoyed.”
This is not an official change, and YouTube did not immediately respond to requests for comment. So far, it has only been spotted as a limited test on Android, and it’s unclear if Google has plans to roll this out generally.
