YouTube’s refreshed Android miniplayer is rolling out now

It looks like YouTube is already tweaking that floating miniplayer on Android. You’ll recall that back in October 2024, the app switched from its persistent bar above the bottom navigation to a more dynamic, floating Picture-in-Picture (PiP) style window that could be moved around. True to their word after teasing a “little refresh” earlier this week based on that user feedback, an updated miniplayer experience is now starting to roll out in version 20.19.37, as reported by 9to5Google.

The most noticeable change with this refresh is a significant reduction in on-screen controls when the miniplayer is active. That bottom control strip with the play/pause button and the 10-second rewind/skip buttons? Gone. Now, you get a much cleaner look with just two essential controls overlaid directly on the video: a play/pause icon in the top-left corner (which fades after a few seconds, though its circular container might stick around a bit longer) and a close ‘x’ button opposite it.

The red progress bar still subtly lines the bottom edge, and a repeat button appears when the video ends. This definitely makes the miniplayer shorter and less visually busy, which should please those who found the previous version took up too much space.

Another handy addition is the ability to tuck the miniplayer away to the left or right side of your screen, much like how the system-level Picture-in-Picture window behaves on Android. You’ll see a little handle that lets you quickly swipe it off to the side, and then easily pull it back out when you want to re-engage with the video. This is a great way to temporarily hide the player without fully closing it.

This updated, more streamlined miniplayer is making its way to Android devices now. While YouTube hasn’t explicitly detailed an iOS timeline, it’s pretty common for features like this to eventually make their way to both platforms. Let us know if you’ve received the update and what you think of the changes!