YouTube seems to be reverting recent miniplayer change after heavy criticism

In what appears to be a rare reversal, YouTube is quietly rolling back its controversial miniplayer redesign that sparked widespread user frustration. Multiple users reported today that the familiar “old” miniplayer has returned to their Android apps, replacing the widely criticized floating design that was introduced in recent weeks.

The original miniplayer, which remained neatly docked at the bottom of the screen, had been replaced with a floating picture-in-picture style player that could bounce between screen corners. Users complained that the new design was both glitchy and distracting, with common issues including random video pauses, disappearing controls, and unpredictable behavior when switching between apps.

“They actually listened for once?” wrote one surprised Reddit user after noticing the change. “It’s the end of the world.” Here’s a screenshot of the old miniplayer that seems to have come back for some:

The floating player had been particularly frustrating for users who like to browse while listening to videos in the background. Many reported that simple actions like checking notifications or rotating their screen would cause videos to pause or disappear entirely. The redesign’s controls were also criticized for being inconsistent – users never knew where to find the pause or close buttons from one session to the next.

While YouTube had initially defended the floating player as an “experiment” to test different layouts, the overwhelmingly negative feedback seems to have prompted a rethink. The company has yet to make an official announcement about the reversal, but users across social media are celebrating the return of the familiar interface. However, it’s worth noting that the reversal doesn’t seem to be live for everyone. I couldn’t get the old miniplayer back on any of my smartphones upon testing.

So I’d suggest taking the information with a grain of salt until we see more evidence from a wider audience concerning the reversal of the miniplayer UI change. That said, the miniplayer isn’t the only thing that users have been criticizing lately.

A recent update completely broke the video playback speed function, leaving many having to watch videos at the normal pace. YouTube also has started testing a weird feature that lets users swipe through long-form videos using the swipe up/down gesture when watching content. This change left users unintentionally switching videos. A recent thread on Reddit discussing various issues with the YouTube app has garnered over 1.4k likes and a few hundred comments. So it seems like YouTube’s team has a lot of work cut out to improve the app due to the frankly unnecessary changes of late.