The NVIDIA SHIELD is getting 360 YouTube video support via an update to the YouTube app for the platform, NVIDIA reported on Monday. The company is classifying this update as “major” which means there will be more than just 360-degree video support that will be added, and users should expect the update to hit in the very near future, though NVIDIA doesn’t mention when the update will actually be released for its Android TV unit. That being said, owners of the device will simply need to keep an eye on the app updates to know when it comes in, which could be as early as today or it could begin rolling out later on in the week.
Depending on personal preferences, 360-degree videos are sure to be one of the more popular additions to the app in this new version soon to head out to users, but as stated above there is more coming to look forward to. The new YouTube app for NVIDIA SHIELD on Android TV is getting a slick new UI too, which is probably going to be the first thing that users actually notice since this is a visual change. That is unless users rarely open up the YouTube app.
As part of this new visual change to the UI, the channel list of subscriptions is being removed from the app completely to keep things more “streamlined” than they were before so users will be able to sift through more relevant content. There will be a new column that shows up with brand new icons to denote what each row is, with highlighted options of different videos that appear as you run the cursor over each slide that pops up. For those that have multiple users on a single device, it’ll now be easier to see who was watching which videos that show up in the history menu as the app will now display the user name of the currently signed-in account, meaning you’ll know right away if it’s your account signed into the app if your account name isn’t displayed at the top of the main screen. For a couple of the remaining changes, there will be a short period of five seconds that pops up after a video has finished that will give users time to select another video to watch before the next video plays automatically, and also following the update videos will appear full screen.