YouTube Music gets some color in its cheeks, all but confirming we won’t see a light mode

The YouTube Music homepage has been a bland black color since the service launched, and to be honest, I thought this was because Google was attempting to find ways to implement Material You or perhaps a light mode (I’ve reached out to support about this). I kind of feel awkward saying this, but I do miss the light mode Google Play Music had, but it looks that we won’t be going that route.

A new screenshot shown off by Redditor Lower-Biscotti reveals that a subtle splash of blurred colors is being added to the service, giving it a bit of life. The first image below shows off Android Police’s version of the web app with the recoloring, which seems a bit less obvious when compared to the mobile app redesign Lower-Biscotti initially showed off.

Ultimately, this change is only meant to add some visual flair and for browsing to become a tad less boring, but it’s a nice addition, in my opinion. Still, I’ll remain hopeful for the aforementioned light mode and Material You updates that I find odd Google hasn’t considered adding yet. While there’s still a possibility this could come about in time, it would mean a more inconsistent design stripped of the color blur upon toggling between light and dark respectively, which seems like an unlikely design decision, even for Google.

While YouTube remains its own separate brand apart from other Google services, it’s been a part of the family for the past 15 years, so I expected the company would treat it more in line with its other family members, but I can understand why it wants to keep it separate.

YouTube has seen wild success and has revolutionized the internet, so keeping its brand untouched by Google’s visual consistency seems like a good way to keep it separate from Google’s design inconsistency. That’s not always the case, but there still seems to be a barrier there. If you’re not seeing the redesign yet, just sit tight as it ought to be rolling out more widely soon.