Key Points:
- New Cast Menu Design: YouTube’s updated Cast menu now features a sleek, floating bottom sheet with rounded corners, enhancing the visual experience.
- Missing Disconnect Button: The redesign has eliminated the direct “Disconnect” button, making it slightly more complex to stop casting.
- Mixed Reactions: Users have mixed feelings about the new design, particularly regarding the extra steps required to disconnect.
YouTube has begun rolling out a redesigned Cast menu for its main app on Android and iOS, echoing changes first seen in YouTube Music. The overhaul replaces the previous “Cast to” prompt, which used to appear centrally on the screen when tapping the Cast icon. In the old design, users could control the volume, access Voice search and Remote options for TVs, and quickly disconnect from the casting session with a prominent button.
The new Cast menu appears as a floating bottom sheet with rounded corners, which is visually more modern and less intrusive as it doesn’t extend edge-to-edge. When content is playing, a thumbnail, along with voice and remote buttons, appears in the corner. Users can switch devices anytime by selecting “This phone” to move playback to their mobile device, albeit making disconnection a two-step process now, compared to the single-step “Disconnect” button in the old design.
This redesign has been met with some criticism due to the lack of a direct disconnect button. Users now need to rely on alternatives like the Google Home app or the Android media switcher to end a Cast session. The YouTube Music team has addressed similar feedback by adding an overflow menu with a “Disconnect from TV” option, which might be incorporated into the main YouTube app eventually.
As of now, the redesigned Cast menu is gradually rolling out, with some users already experiencing it on iOS and Android, while others await the update.
