If you’re anything like me, you sometimes struggle to find something to watch when you’re on YouTube. Fortunately, the media giant is adding a new button to the Android app to automatically hunt down and select a video for you to watch.
YouTube for Android Gets a “Play Something” Button
As reported by 9to5Google, people have spotted a new feature appearing on YouTube for Android. This feature adds a button that reads “Play something” at the bottom right of the homepage. If you tap this, YouTube will automatically fetch something for you to watch.
According to people with the feature, the button will always launch the YouTube Shorts UI to show you its selected video. However, it’s not limited to picking short videos; it can opt to show you a long-form video instead. Given the minimalistic Shorts UI, YouTube likely chose this format to get the user to watch a new video without any additional distractions.
So, how does YouTube decide what video to show you next? Given how new this feature is, people haven’t cracked how the feature’s algorithm works. However, 9to5Google states that it “presumably” takes from your recommended video feed.
Right now, it seems that Google is giving this feature a test run. As such, not everyone will see it on their device, and even if you do get it, there’s no guarantee that it will stick around. However, if you want to try it, users report that the new feature is popping up after updating to version 19.50 or later. As such, update your app and see if YouTube rolls out the button to your device.
If you’d rather not trust an algorithm to find your next favorite video, check out these YouTube channels you should watch next. Or, if you dislike the media giant’s recent push for shorter videos and algorithm-based suggestions, you can try one of these websites that are better than YouTube.
