What you need to know
- Users on Reddit spotted a redesign as YouTube Music is testing for its "Cast to device" menu.
- The test sees the menu changing to a small window that springs up from the bottom of the UI with "Suggested" and "Other devices" listed.
- The changes also alter how users interact with a casted device, only delivering a volume slider and no other media controls.
YouTube is beginning to test a redesign for the casting experience users find on its music platform.
As spotted by a user on Reddit, YouTube Music is working on ditching the old pop-up window for "Cast to device" in favor of a new sub-menu (via 9to5Google). The new "sheet" offers users a selection of "Suggested" devices to begin casting music. Following that are a few more options under "Other devices," which appear to include any connected smart home devices with a speaker.
The original poster had another screenshot showcasing YouTube Music's new "Playing on" screen, which is quite minimalistic. In testing, the only thing shown is the name of the device you're casting to and a simple volume slider.
The old view's play and pause buttons have seemingly disappeared from this redesigned "Playing on" pop-up.
Meanwhile, other users chimed in, questioning where the "disconnect" button has gone. YouTube Music doesn't offer it on the new currently playing screen. Further digging shows users supposedly have to re-cast their music to their current device (their phone) to end the cast.
While most of the work appears ready, it's unclear when Google will roll out these changes, as testing is likely to continue.
Casting on YouTube Music moved more into the spotlight last year when the platform tested a change to its mini-player. The addition saw the casting option placed beside the play button and knocking out the "Skip" button.
The reason for knocking out the latter was to encourage its use of touch gestures on your device instead of cluttering things with digital buttons.
YouTube Music's other experimental ventures include bringing generative AI to your tunes. Through its "Music AI Incubator," the platform hopes to leverage Gen AI's capabilities to help users overcome challenges posed by trademark, copyright, spam, and other problems. YouTube Music also started a test where U.S. users could experiment with generative AI-created playlist covers.
