Tech
YouTube's 'Explore' tab is a new hub to help you find things to watch
It's rolling out today to iOS and Android.
YouTube has begun rolling out a new "Explore" tab in its app for iOS and Android that replaces Trending as a destination for finding interesting videos to watch.
It's a pretty straightforward section — At the top you'll see shortcuts to dive into YouTube's different video categories — Music, Gaming, and News, to name a few. Underneath that, the Explore section's "On the Rise" featured video is meant to showcase an up-and-coming creator on the platform.
YouTube has been criticized in the past for favoring its top creators instead of highlighting new ones. This new "On the Rise" feature also sort of harkens back to the "Featured" tab from YouTube's early days, when it curated and promoted interesting videos from around the site regardless of popularity. Finally, the Trending section of hot videos isn't going anywhere — it's now found at the bottom of the Explore tab.
YouTube has been testing out Explore since 2018. That seems weirdly long for a tab that's pretty rudimentary, but maybe the video-sharing site really didn't want to screw it up. If you don't see it yet, YouTube says it's rolling out over the next few days.