YouTube Music’s split-view Now Playing redesign is now widely rolling out, following ongoing development efforts since last year.
The redesign introduces a dual-pane layout that prominently features cover art, player controls, and upcoming tracks. The “Song” and “Video” switcher now utilizes icons, and the cover art is slightly larger.
The placement of the button carousel and main controls remains unchanged. However, the progress bar has been updated to a thicker container, which expands when users tap or scrub along it. The previous “Lyrics” and “Related” sections have been removed, and the lower part of the Now Playing screen is now dedicated to the Up Next queue.
Users can swipe in the player to reveal the Up Next queue halfway. A second swipe upwards restores the previous fullscreen design. Lyrics are now positioned directly after the thumbs up/down buttons, while the Related section can be accessed by tapping the song title and a right-facing chevron.
This redesign is rolling out to YouTube Music on Android (version 9.14) and iOS (version 9.15). The rollout is a server-side update; users can trigger the new design by dismissing the queue or force stopping the app.
