I’ve been a YouTube TV subscriber from the moment the service launched in my region. I’ve tried Sling, what once was DirecTV Now, and Hulu and while they were all fine, the overall user experience of YouTube TV is what won me over. The price was insane at the beginning even though the channel list was a bit slim back then, but what really got me on board was the immediate availability of a great desktop/web app in conjunction with the Android/iOS app. I liked the way it worked, I loved the unlimited DVR and family sharing, and to this day I still do.
If there was one thing that annoyed me about YouTube TV from the beginning, however, it was the way you viewed upcoming programming. Don’t get me wrong, one benefit of cutting the cord is the complete removal of mindless TV just being on in our home. Channel surfing out of habit has become a thing of the past for our family, and I’m glad for that. I think back on the hours of my life I probably wasted just flipping through channels looking for something to occupy my time and wish I’d done something better with that time.
While I champion the idea of turning on the TV only when you know you have something in mind to watch, I didn’t love YouTube TV’s limited and/or absent live guide. I don’t want to go back to flipping through channels, but there have been countless times over the past year that I’ve simply needed to figure out what was coming on and when. An upcoming game, a live news special, etc. have all been reasons I needed to flip open a guide and see whats upcoming in the next few hours on my television provider.
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Up to this point, the guide available for YouTube TV has only existed in the browser and it only showed a small portion of upcoming shows. While this was better than the completely absent upcoming guide on mobile, it still didn’t really help all those times I needed to quickly check when the game was coming on later in the evening.
Thankfully, at least on the desktop, YouTube TV has remedied this problem. As we speak, you can now head over to tv.youtube.com and select the LIVE tab and see a scrollable list of everything that is on currently and upcoming for the next week. This gives users the ability to finally look around a bit at upcoming programming and easily see what time a certain event will be airing. Additionally, clicking into any event in this view brings up a pop-up box that allows users to quickly add the show/event to their DVR and I think this may be the most useful part of this new addition. Yes, I know I can search for shows and add them that way, but this makes the whole process so much easier on a day-to-day basis.
The update seems to be live for everyone and you can check it out right now if you are a YouTube TV subscriber. No plugins, updates, or installs are necessary for this new feature as this is simply the magic and beauty of web apps and PWAs. I hope some sort of similar treatment happens for the mobile app as well as the majority of the time I need to research upcoming events on YouTube TV I’m out and about with only my phone. This is a great step in that direction for now, though, and it will make my Pixelbook Go the de facto way I utilize YouTube TV for the time being.
