My Youtube app seems to have updated itself tonight for some reason. I didn’t know it got an update nor did I tell it to update, but I was switching between a US and AU store account for some content I purchased from the US store.
While I’m late to the party, it seems that the new app is a huge downgrade on the old one and from what I’m reading that’s the general consensus. Is there anyway to upgrade to the old version?
No way to downgrade as far as I’m aware. And yes, the new app is horrendous. Apparently Google wants the “experience” to be the same across all platforms.
The new app is so awful that I unsubscribed from YouTube Red because of it. 99% of my YouTube watching is on my Apple TV and that thing is an atrocity.
I’ve taken to plugging in the old ATV3 lately. I may not have PLex on there but everything else works.
We have Plex + Netflix + YouTube (+ the Photos screen saver) as the main apps we use on the ATV4. To be fair, most of my time is spent in Plex or Netflix and it’s mostly the kids that use Youtube, but I do have a few things I subscribe to on there.
I don’t know how this compares to the iPad app? That’s where the kids tend to do a fair bit of watching, so if it’s similar to that they won’t mind so much? (I’ve only got an iPhone and that looks the same as a I remember it looking).
Another question, which I’m sure I’ll work out, is how easy it is to switch accounts? If it’s quick and easy that could offset the terrible design a little. In my household use case the ATV is logged into my account (although the kids do have their own through our Google Music/Youtube Red family account). This means that my account is crammed full of everything the three kids have subsribed to (and technically they have to live with the 3 channels I have 
). If it’s simple enough to switch we could build some decent segregation of content and interests.
Airplay YouTube from the iPad to the AppleTV?
Hrmm, why didnt I think of that. Better than doing battle with the older ATV and the newer youtube app
While that’s an option for little things, it seems like a bit of a waste to be airplaying (probably at a down sampled res too) from one device to another. Shame it doesn’t work like Chrome cast where it can be sent to play directly on the TV from another device (unless it does something I’m anaware of).
I also don’t have an iPad, just an iPhone, and I find that air playing stuff tends to time out on the iPhone and stop playing on the ATV when the phone goes to sleep.
It turns out that switching accounts is now very easy, so the kids accounts are setup and I’ve unsubscribed from all their stuff. Nice.
I complained to YouTube and Apple (for the subpar UI). Definitely go and do that. YouTube have an offical launch thread somewhere that is just a cascade of hate from users furious with the new app. They took away the “shuffle playlist” feature. YouTube was our usual party/drinks with friends background noise with some comedy music playlists we’d have on shuffle. Only way to do it is via airplay now. YouTube’s official statement on it? “We deliberately removed shuffle because now we have new music features which we think you’ll love even more!” Umm yeah nah