iPhone users get a permanent mini player and swipe controls with AirPlay in YouTube Music

YouTube Music has been working hard to catch up with other music apps like Spotify and Apple Music. These apps have had a lot of features for a while now that have received much praise from users. YouTube has been lagging, but it is not giving up! Now, introducing a handy new way to switch songs in its mini-player.

Effortless Song Navigation

You know that little player at the bottom of the app when you're playing music? Most music apps have buttons to pause and skip songs there. But YouTube Music is doing something a bit different. Instead of a skip button, they've put an option to cast the music to another device. If you want to change the song without going to the full-screen player, just swipe left or right on the track. Swipe one way to go to the next song and the other way to go back to the previous one. Also read: Fitbit in your skull! 10 things you should know about Neuralink, Elon Musk’s Brain-Computer firm

iPhone Gets a Permanent Mini-Player Upgrade

This new feature came to Android in June, and now it's available on iPhone and iPad. The mini-player is now permanent and can't be removed. They have also added AirPlay for iPhone users. Instead of a "next song" button, you'll see AirPlay (and Cast) in the mini-player. This opens a menu that used to be in the top-right corner of the screen, making the app look cleaner with just a search bar and your account picture, according to a 9to5Mac report.

The play button is now on the far right, which might take some time to get used to. But the best part is that you can swipe left and right to change songs, something you couldn't do before. It's much faster!

One thing to note is that you can't swipe down on the mini-player to clear your playlist anymore. To do that, go to "Now Playing" and look for "Dismiss queue" at the top (it used to be at the bottom on Android). It's a bit more complicated now, but you'll get used to it.

This new mini-player for iPhone is rolling out today with version 6.20 of YouTube Music. If you don't see it yet, try closing the app from multitasking, and it might show up.

Enjoy the new way to control your music on YouTube Music!