If you use the YouTube Gaming app on Android to get your fix on the latest game streams, there’s a new update out for the application that bumps users up to version 1.7 which introduces not only a new easter egg, but also a slight redesign to the chat feature. To be clear, this isn’t a really a redesigned chat feature but rather a repositioning as the option to enable chat has now been moved to the bottom of the page under the details. When you go into a stream, or any video for that matter, if you’re on the latest version of YouTube Gaming you should see a bar at the very bottom of the screen that says chat, with an up arrow icon.
Tapping on this will open the chat window and you’ll be able to converse with other users that are viewing the stream/video. Tapping on this again will close the chat box and you can focus on watching again. While this isn’t anything really more than a minor change, it gets chat out of the way a little bit more to let users focus more on the core content. On the flip side, it also makes chat the focal point when opened. The YouTube Gaming team also notes that there are general bug fixes and improvements made with this version update, so the app should just run smoother, and the what’s new section also mentions better support for devices that are running on Android Nougat, so if you happen to have one of those devices this update will help the app experience.
In regards to the easter egg, this time around users are treated to an easter egg that revolves around Half-Life 3, but more specifically around the Half-Life 3 Confirmed meme. To get to it, you’ll first need to tap on the search icon, and then type “Half-Life 3 Confirmed” into the search. This should populate a list of videos and you’ll need to look for one of the actual games in the franchise, and when you select it you’ll need to look for the game logo next to the “+” which will initiate a search for Half-Life 3 Confirmed memes when you tap the “+” icon. If you can’t recreate the easter eg conditions, make sure you’re on the latest version of the app by checking first if you have an update available, and then going into the app settings and making sure that you’re on version 1.7.15.4.
