We’ve all had that feeling when you are just endlessly scrolling multiple OTT apps just to find something engaging to watch. The good news is YouTube seems to have understood the problem and rolled out a new feature that will prevent users from doom scrolling the video streaming platform.
The Google-owned app is testing a new floating action button (FAB) with the text “Play Something” in black background and white text, 9to5Google reported. Tapping on the new button reportedly starts playing a video in Shorts player but interestingly the feature is not limited to just Shorts and users can also play regular videos in portrait interface with large buttons for like, dislike, comments and sharing on the right side of the screen and timeline is visible at the bottom.
While Google/YouTube has kept mum about the feature, a smart guess would be that it takes into account the content preferences of users before suggesting a new full-length video or Short.
However, this is not the first time Google has been spotted working on the “Play Something” button. The earliest leaks of this button date back to May 2023 when a Reddit user posted about seeing this new feature (via Android Authority). In November of that year, Android Police spotted the button albeit without the ‘Play Something’ branding.
The feature was reportedly spotted in YouTube version 19.50 for Android. There is no clarity on when/if Google takes it out of testing stage and rolls out to all users
