YouTube is testing a tweaked progress bar that turns pink as the video end approaches

Summary

• YouTube might be testing a new red-to-pink progress bar design on mobile and the web.
• Several users have reported spotting the UI tweak, which changes the video progress bar behavior, fading to pink at the end.
• The tweak appeared for both Premium and non-Premium users, with reports from as far back as two months ago.

Google-owned YouTube is no stranger when it comes to weird UI tweaks, some that make sense and some that just don’t.

We know that the streaming giant is testing an iOS-like bottom bar for the YouTube app on Android, complete with new Home and Subscriptions icons and a translucent bar that shows what’s in the background, paired with a new bell icon for the YouTube Music app that rolled out earlier this year and a redesigned artists page.

Now, several users have reported spotting a minor UI tweak that changes a long-standing YouTube interface element — the video progress bar.

As it stands now, the bar denotes the entire timeline of a video, while the red color highlights the parts that you’ve already watched. This, however, wasn’t always the case. Over its years of tweaks, we’ve seen the red bar for the entire timeline, regardless of the parts you’ve watched, and we also recall when the red color was used to denote parts of a video that had already been loaded or buffered.

Now, in a UI tweak that doesn’t fundamentally alter the platform, YouTube seems to be testing out a progress bar that starts out red but fades into pink towards the end of videos.

The new look has been spotted by many

The behavior has been spotted on Premium and non-Premium accounts on mobile and the web, with no indication from YouTube about the tweak. Those privy to the new UI have also added that they’re not running any extensions or add-ons that might trigger the behavior. We were able to find users reporting the change as far back as two months ago, and as recently as today, Wednesday, August 21.

Why the change, you may ask? We’re not sure. It could just be a design tweak for visual appeal, and while we’re not design language experts here, the red does flow into pink pretty well, with the latter indicating a calm sense of completion, i.e., the video.

It’s worth noting that even though several users have reported the tweak, it doesn’t appear to be widespread, and we’re uncertain if the color transitioning progress bar will ever make it to the masses.