YouTube for Android TV has a new two-column channel side menu that obscures the content you’re trying to watch.
When you’re watching YouTube videos on Android TV or Google TV, you can use your remote control to instantly check out, subscribe to, become a member of, or view entire channels that have uploaded videos. You can.
For a long time, a floating card-style menu would appear and overlay the video, hiding some content until you closed the menu or used one of the on-screen options. In addition to changing the menu layout on the channel side, YouTube also appears to be changing the animation to align with the many changes to Material You over the past 18-24 months.
The new menu slightly minimizes the currently playing video and provides the same controls, but the large channel card no longer blocks the right side of the image.
This change makes a big difference, mimicking the layout of the video details tab and comments section, and also minimizing the currently playing video so you can watch it without distractions. Google said the initial changes were to strike “the right balance between interactivity and immersion.” Adding this final touch will help bring everything together.
Below you can see the new two-column channel side menu in action, as well as the old animation that is still present on most devices.
We discovered this issue with Google TV Streamer and Chromecast with Google TV hardware, but it’s unclear how widely this change was rolled out. If you see an updated menu, let us know in the comments below.
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