YouTube’s logo undergoes a massive change for the first time in 12 years

YouTube really took the advice ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ to heart. Until now. The world’s most popular streaming site for video content has not only unveiled a new logo but a new look as well.

YouTube has undergone a lot of development over the years. From being able to watch videos in only a single format of 320×240 at 4:3 aspect ratio, you now have access to HD, SD, 3-D, and 360 videos. Moreover, the platform has come up with multiple subsidiaries – like YouTube Kids, YouTube Red, YouTube Gaming – to cater to the varying tastes of their 1.5 billion monthly users. Needless to say, YouTube has evolved a lot. It’s time its logo did too.

For the past 12 years, YouTube’s logo has been a mixture of words and an icon. The word Tube was inside a ‘tube’ but with the new logo, the tube has been set free and the icon has morphed into YouTube’s iconic red play button. The company announced this in an official blog post. ‘Tube’ is essentially slang for television. But since TVs are not central to YouTube’s service the decision to change the logo and add the ‘play’ button seems like the most logical thing to do. In fact, it’s about time this happened.

The new logo isn’t the only thing YouTube has unveiled. The company has revealed a new desktop design which follows Material Design, Google’s design language. With it, YouTube’s aim was to let the content be the real star. It also comes with a dark theme but sadly the dark theme hasn’t been rolled out to the mobile app.

For the app version, however, YouTube announced that it has moved the navigation tabs to the bottom making it more ergonomically accessible. This update has already rolled out around the world. Moreover, YouTube is also changing how users view videos. While users can currently tap the forward button to move ahead in a video, new updates will allow users to move back and forth to videos just by the swipe of a hand and a speed adjustment feature is also expected. YouTube is also accepting the nature of videos. Soon enough users will be able to view videos exactly how they were shot – square, vertical, or horizontal. This rings great news for video makers, who won’t have to alter their videos to fit YouTube’s screen size criteria. And the area below the video player could also see a makeover soon.

A lot is happening at YouTube and like all companies who reach a ‘plateau point’, YouTube is trying very hard to stay relevant for its users.

What do you think about YouTube’s new logo?