YouTube for Android revamped with Material Design, finally gets search filtering

Google today updated YouTube for Android with its Material Design look. You can download the new version directly from Google Play (if you don’t see it yet, don’t worry, it’s rolling out gradually “this week”).

While some have already managed to get their hands on YouTube with Material Design, the update is now official. Google supplied us with a screenshot of the app running on a Nexus 7.

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We whipped out our own tablet for a comparison shot, which you can see below (old version on the left, new version on the right):

The company notes this is YouTube for Android’s first visual redesign in a year. That said, Google has released 12 major updates to its YouTube app, so it’s not like the company has been resting on its laurels.

Material Design is great mainly because it brings more consistency across Google’s various apps and services. It will take a while, but eventually all of the company’s products will conform to the same standard. By then, of course, the company will probably want to revamp everything again.

Look and feel aside, the app has finally received a much-needed search filtering feature. In case you were wondering, this is the same functionality that is available on YouTube.com: You can search for videos, channels, and playlists, plus filter by when content was uploaded, how long it is, whether it is in HD or has closed captions, and so on.

We like the new look, but search filtering is the must-have addition here. There’s nothing more frustrating than using the YouTube app and having to switch to the website just to find the video you want. After all, Google is still primarily a search company.