YouTube app for Android updated with improved search and UI, bug fixes

Google on Wednesday updated its YouTube app for Android users. The updated app with Version 5.5.27 is now available for all smartphones running Android Version 2.3.3 and above.

The latest version of the YouTube app (available on the Google Play store) integrates few new features to it. It now allows user to find videos, playlists and channels together in search results. Additionally there are now tabs on channel pages for Activity, Videos and Playlists.

Apart from the new integrations, the updated YouTube app brings various bug fixes, including a fix for Cast icon that used to appear over the player when Bluetooth is connected.

Reportedly, Google on Wednesday had mistakenly pushed test build of the YouTube app (version 5.5.26) to the Play Store. Before the company could realise its mistake, it was spotted by various tech blogs. The test build was quickly pulled, and replaced to the present (5.5.27) general release YouTube app.

The spotted test build sported a new icon and new settings for the popular video sharing website. It had replaced the iconic 'play' logo of YouTube with a 'dog-bone' icon, while the shape and colour of the icon were same as present.

Readers might be perplexed at the dog-bone icon, and assume an exciting new release is in the pipeline. However, as it was a test build that was mistakenly released, the icon quite definitely represented the 'Dogfooding' status of the app. In development terms, dogfooding refers to a product or service developed by that company so as to test it before it is made available to customers.

Interestingly, the spotted test build of the YouTube app featured a new options in the app's settings menu, namely, an ExoPlayer. So far, no details are known about it, as the update was quickly pulled from the Play Store.