You’ve always been able to skip tracks in YouTube Music just like any other streaming music service. It seems to be much easier now though with a cool little feature update.
This looks to be something behind the scenes that was done without putting out a long formal announcement.
It was discovered by a user and shared over on Reddit. Who shows that you can now swipe on the album art of songs to skip tracks in the YouTube Music app. Seeing as how this is already available in Google Play Music and other services, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s being implemented here.
Skip tracks in YouTube Music by swiping left or right
Just like you’d tap the left or right buttons to skip tracks, you’ll also swipe left or right to skip tracks.
You don’t have to choose one or the other either. Both methods for moving through your songs will work simultaneously. If it’s easier for your to swipe, then you can do so with relative ease here.
Or just tap the buttons below the album art to get the same results. Worth noting is that this is a feature that is new and hasn’t reached all users yet.
Even after what seems to be the most recent update for the YouTube Music app, the swipe option isn’t available on our end. So it’s likely that this is a feature which Google has to turn on server-side.
There’s a new animation on the play button too
In addition to the new skip track method, there’s a new animation on the play button.
If you look at the app and skip tracks now with the button tap, nothing happens to the play button. But you can see with the new swipe method, the play button will show an animation transitioning between pause and play when you skip a track.
This happens both for when you swipe or when you tap. It’s a minor detail. But it’s also attention to these minor details that are the simple pleasures which make the user experience that much better.
Since this appears to be something that you have to just wait on, there’s no telling how long it will take to reach all users. If you use YouTube Music as your main streaming app, keep an eye out for it the next time you skip a track. It might be live before the end of the week or it could be quite a bit longer.