It took almost 2 years, but Google is finally testing Material design for YouTube

Google is finally conducting a test for a revamp of the YouTube website that’s in line with Google’s Material design principles. It’s surprising because Google introduced Material design almost two years ago and is only now getting around to deploying the code in the wild.

The new look won’t necessarily be immediately visible if you head on over to youtube.com. You’ll have to do a little bit of tinkering while you’re signed out of the site in Chrome (and located in the U.S.), as Android Police is reporting. But it’s nonetheless entertaining to see how Google has rejiggered the site.

YouTube, with more than 1 billion active users, is more popular than other services that have recently completed Material design upgrades, including AdWords, Chrome OS, Google Analytics. But so be it — better late than never.

Here are a few screenshots of the new look:

Above: The left drawer you can open up from the homepage.

Image Credit: Screenshot

Above: YouTube’s music section.

Image Credit: Screenshot

Above: PGA Tour’s page on YouTube.

Image Credit: Screenshot

Above: Search results.

Image Credit: Screenshot

Above: VentureBeat’s YouTube page.

Image Credit: Screenshot

Above: Watching a video.

Image Credit: Screenshot

Here’s how to enable the redesign, by the way, courtesy of Reddit user giorgiomarinel: Load youtube.com/?gl=US, open up Chrome’s Developer tools, navigate to the Resources tab, click the Cookies section in the left rail, select click www.youtube.com, click the “VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE” cookie and hit delete, then open up the Console tab, type in document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=Qa1hUZu3gtk;path=/;domain=.youtube.com";, hit enter, and finally refresh the YouTube page.