YouTube may be testing swipe-up for horizontal videos – and users aren’t happy

TikTok has revolutionized the way we watch videos, and it’s a detail that other short video creation platforms can’t ignore: the swipe up.

When Instagram launched its TikTok clone Reels, it included a swipe-up design detail, a key aspect that makes the copycat so popular — and the same goes for YouTube Shorts. As we know, all these platforms are mainly used for vertical videos. Now it looks like the YouTube app itself is testing this gesture in its default video player – in all its horizontal glory.

Digital trends Contributor Tushar Mehta first spotted the change and posted about it on That’s a good question. The general consensus – when you combine the sentiment of Mehta’s tweet with the headline of Android Authority Article about the possible change – “YouTube is testing the worst change ever to its Android app” – is that people aren’t excited about it. One user responded to Mehta’s post on Another user called it “really hilarious,” to which Mehta replied, “I don’t know how engineers make this up to justify their $250,000+ salaries.”

This is not an official change and YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Mashable. So far it’s only been spotted as a limited test on Android and it’s unclear if Google has any plans to actually roll it out.