What's Up With YouTube's 'Impressively Bad' New Layout? YouTube's New UI Controversy Explained

There's been an update to YouTube, and people are not reacting well at all. Users have found that YouTube's layout is changing, making the site look rather different, and causing its user interface to be rather difficult to look at.

Backlash to changes is not uncommon for large social media platforms, especially with drastic alterations such as these. But what exactly did this new UI update do, and is the hate warranted? Here's everything to know about what's going on with YouTube's layout.

What's the Story Behind YouTube's UI Update?

YouTube never announced an upcoming update, but on February 21st, the first handful of people started to notice the differences in the site's layout, which rolled out over several days, not yet affecting every user. YouTube's recommendations now are at the bottom, and take up a good half of the screen. Comments are on the side and span from top to bottom of the screen, and they're also in a much smaller font. Basically, it's visually unsettling.

Here's what the layout looks like:

Complaints quickly came in, particularly on X / Twitter, where people voiced intense distress with the site's new layout, which is not seen as particularly user-friendly or even visually tolerable.

How Are People Reacting To The YouTube Update?

Not well. They don't like it, to say the least. In fact, a few users even assumed it was a glitch. Some pointed out that it looks a little too much like Twitch. The new user interface was called ugly and was subjected to roasts by social media users, and YouTube hasn't responded to the criticism yet.

For now, it's unclear when the update will complete rolling out. It's rumored that it's only affecting YouTube Premium members, but this is unconfirmed, and frankly is irritating YouTube's fanbase even more. For now, the unpopular update remains unexplained and unfixable.

For the full history of "YouTube's UI update," be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.