YouTube rolling out app redesign without Subscriptions tab, and everyone hates it

After the change was announced last month, YouTube is now rolling out its mobile app redesign with a new navigation bar and no dedicated Subscriptions tab and initial reactions tell a pretty clear story – everyone hates it.

In its biggest change in around a decade, YouTube’s mobile app is ditching its five-button navigation bar for a new look that focuses on Shorts and creation, with a new “Home” page that includes recommendations, “Subs,” and more.

The biggest change here is that YouTube no longer has a dedicated Subscriptions tab in its app, with that now a swipe away on the new “Home” tab. Functionally, it’s not all that different, but it breaks a decade of muscle memory and shuffles the priority of content in the app.

We’re seeing the new YouTube redesign on Android today, with many also seeing it on iOS. It appears to be rolling out via a server-side change rather than a specific app update.

Just an FYI in case anyone doesn't know this or forgot about it but YT app has app shortcuts built-in so if you long press on the app icon one of the options you'll see is Subscriptions with a + next to it if you want the app to open straight into subscriptions like I do.

“Sloppy,” “disgusting,” “the worst UI that has ever been made by Google.” The bulk of the blowback is on the removal of the Subscriptions tab in the YouTube app, with many annoyed that YouTube is now designed for “what they… want you to do,” not what the end-user actually wants which, for many, is just accessing the channels they’ve subscribed to. 9to5Google readers mirrored this sentiment when Google first announced the change.

YouTube’s new app does come with the perk of being able to create a “custom feed” on that Home tab, though.

What do you think of the change? Has it hit your device yet?

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