YouTube Explore Tab Finally Rolling Out on Android, iOS, Replaces Trending Tab

YouTube has finally started rolling out the Explore tab in its Android and iOS apps, something that has been in testing for quite a while now. The new tab replaces the Trending tab and allows users to access destination pages from popular content categories from one place, along with the trending videos. The update has started rolling out to all Android and iOS devices and should reach everyone in the next few days, according to the YouTube team. The company has been testing this feature for about two years now and has finally released it for the public.

In the post on Google's support page, the YouTube team states three advantages of this Explore tab – “Easy access to destination pages”, “More prominent Creator & Artist on the Rise section”, and “Continue to see what's Trending on YouTube right now”. The Explore tab lets users view the various destination pages like Music, Gaming, Movies & Shows, Fashion & Beauty, among others. The post also states that the YouTube team will be adding to the list of destination pages.

The Explore page also makes it easier to discover new artists and creators. It shows a ‘Creator on the Rise' or ‘Artist on the Rise' badge for new creators on YouTube. Along with this, the Trending page gets its own option in the Explore tab and the page works as usual, showing off what is happening in the world and what people are watching the most in a certain region. The new Explore tab is placed between the ‘Home' and ‘Subscriptions' tabs

YouTube has been working on adding the Explore tab for two years now and has taken feedback from tests, after which it officially started rolling out the update. As per its support post, the new Explore tab should reach all users in the next few days. We were seeing the new Explore tab already however, running YouTube v15.09.36 for Android. We last received an app update back on March 2, but it's possible the Explore tab was activated by a server-side switch.