Today is a big day for the Google-owned YouTube platform, as the company announces a few new changes.

Today, YouTube announced that it will be changing its logo, and also making a few key alterations to its mobile apps and the desktop experience. First and foremost, the logo that people have been looking at for years is finally getting updated. YouTube will now have its familiar play icon to the left of the title, no longer wrapped around the “Tube” portion of the logo. It’s a very straightforward change, as you can see from the image at the top of this article.

“The bright red cherry on top of this update sundae is a refreshed YouTube Logo and YouTube Icon. Designed for our multi-screen world, the updated Logo combines a cleaned up version of the YouTube wordmark and Icon, creating a more flexible design that works better across a variety of devices, even on the tiniest screens. Why’s it more flexible? When room is limited (say on a smartphone) you can use the brightened up Icon as an abbreviated Logo, which will be seen more easily and read more clearly. You’ll see the new Logo and Icon roll out across mobile and desktop today, and across all our other apps and services soon.”

As for the changes that are coming to the way people watch YouTube, there are quite a few. YouTube is cleaning up the mobile app experience, putting a focus on navigation so people can find things they want to watch faster. The navigation tabs are going to be placed at the bottom of the app, which should help quite a bit. There will be more gesture support, adding the ability to slow down or speed up a video, videos that adapt to the device they are being watched on, and more. Here’s the full breakdown:

• Clean new design: We’ve made the header white to let content take the lead and moved the navigation tabs to the bottom of the app so they’re closer to your thumbs. We also added new Library and Account tabs that give you easy access to what you’re looking for.
• Videos that move with you: One of the things we’re working on is bringing gestures to YouTube. Earlier this year, we introduced a gesture that allows you to double tap on the left or right side of a video to fast forward or rewind 10 seconds. Give it a try! We already see billions of double taps per day. And I wanted to give you a sneak peek at another gesture I am really excited about. In the coming months, we’ll experiment with a feature that lets you jump between videos with a simple swipe of your hand: just swipe left to watch a previous video or swipe right to watch the next one.
• Watch at your own pace: Users love that they are able to speed up and slow down the playback of a video on desktop, and we’re excited to bring this feature to the mobile app today, so you can enjoy videos at whatever speed you prefer.
• Adapt to any video, beautifully: We’ve also been experimenting with new ways to display all videos in the best possible way. Soon, the YouTube player will seamlessly change shape to match the video format you’re watching, such as vertical, square or horizontal. That means you’ll always get the best viewing experience automatically – including vertical videos with no black bars on the sides!
• Browse and discover while you watch: We recently added a feature that lets you view a row of suggested videos while you’re watching in full screen. We’re also working on transforming the area below the player so you can browse videos in totally new ways.

The desktop experience is getting updated, too. Google is rolling out its Material Design (which is prominent on its Android platform) to the desktop, and it will make navigation easier, with a cleaner look all around. The Dark Theme for YouTube is now available to everyone, too. The new experience for desktop users begins rolling out today.

All of these changes should be welcomed for longtime users of the YouTube platform.

How often are you watching YouTube videos?