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In a new update to the YouTube app for Android and iOS devices, ambient mode is getting a vital improvement. This feature became official about a year ago, but its usage for full-screen videos on Android and iOS devices has not been so stable. In full-screen mode, this feature seems to just go away, but when users are streaming in portrait mode, the feature works as it was designed to work.
Well, if you aren’t already aware of what the YouTube Ambient mode is, this article will provide the necessary information you need. Ambient mode helps videos look better by spilling a bit of color from the video onto the dark areas of the interface. In portrait mode, these areas include the area above the video interface, which is the Android status bar.
In full-screen mode, these areas are the left and right sides of the video-playing interface. But before this upgrade, for some reason, full-screen videos didn’t have ambient mode. But all of that is coming to an end as Google is now rolling out ambient mode for full-screen videos on Android and iOS devices.
You can now enjoy the YouTube Ambient mode while streaming video in landscape mode
A new update to the YouTube app is now bringing support for ambient mode to full-screen videos. Users that the new update installed on their devices are now reporting that Ambient mode is here on full-screen videos. With this upgrade, full-screen videos are now getting color spills on the left and right sides of the interface.
The colors in question are generated from the video that is playing and it changes along with the video. For example, if one is watching a video with a red background, the color spill will be blurry red. But if the scene from the video changes to a blue background, then the color spills will also change to blurry blue.
This helps add some life to the areas of the interface where no video is playing. Some users might consider the changing blurry colors on the left and right sides of the screen distracting. For those users, Google gives them a way to do away with the ambient mode, making the left and right sides of the full-screen interface black.
To toggle off this feature, users need to head to the YouTube settings page. Once here, the user will have to tap on “Additional Settings” and then toggle the Ambient mode option off. It’s also good to note that this feature is only available for use when the YouTube app is in dark mode.
The update bringing this improvement is now rolling out to Android and iOS devices. To access the update, you’ll need to head over to the Play Store or the App Store and update your YouTube app. If your device hasn’t got the update, you need to be patient as it might take some time to get to your smartphone.