The YouTube Activity tab that Google has been testing for the last several weeks is now rolling out to all users as part of a client-side update for the YouTube Android app. The latest build of the service was launched late Wednesday and should soon be available for download from the Google Play Store in all parts of the world. Apart from a new addition to the app’s user interface, the update also facilitates the process of removing videos from playlists; doing so is now as simple as swiping an item to the left and tapping the sizeable “Remove” button that’s painted in YouTube’s signature red color and is essentially impossible to miss, as seen in the screenshot below. The new way of removing playlist entries doesn’t eliminate the old method for doing so but is more intuitive than tapping the three-dot icon next to an individual video an hitting the “Remove from playlist” option on a drop-down menu. While it takes the same amount of touches, swiping to remove a video is faster by virtue of the fact that the three-dot actions shortcut is relatively small and requires more accurate input.
The Activity tab itself is the same one that Google already launched for the iOS YouTube app this spring and brings the Notifications and Shared sections of the service to a dedicated menu which can be accessed from the bottom navigation bar. The change was likely made in response to the Shared tab not being used as much as Google was expecting, so people who care about it can still access it in a relatively straightforward manner whereas those who don’t are able to continue using the YouTube Android app without even seeing it referenced unless they’re seeking to check their notifications, with the Notifications tab now being situated right next to the Shared one under the newly launched Activity section.
The latest update for the Android version of YouTube can be downloaded from the Google Play Store by referring to the banner below. Some performance and stability improvements may also be part of the recently released package, though Google didn’t mention any in the changelog accompanying the update.