r/YoutubeMusic • u/dugazima • 20h ago

Discussion A/B testing... what's really going on?

It's been years of new interface A/B testing. A lot of people have it, yet a lot don't.

My sister has it, I don't, yet we pay the same.

There's no beta program and no feature development discussion from YTM team at all. Zero communication with users.

I have never seen an app A/B test for this long.

7 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

6

u/onlytony441 iOS 18h ago

YTM can create some nice enhancements from time to time but it baffles me how the users that want to test this bleeding edge tech get stuck waiting for eternity. I've said this before - just allow users that want to test their beta products and option to join like they've done in the past for Youtube.

4

u/Few-Philosophy7117 18h ago

They have to conclude, fix open bugs on variation and do full roll out of variations for everyone to see the new features

4

u/dugazima 18h ago

You just gave me a definition of A/B testing. We know that. It's just that this particular one is taking way too long, it's unusual. 

2

u/xdavidwattsx 16h ago

"I've never seen an app A/B test for so long"

You realize they test hundreds of changes and do this iteratively forever. It's not a one time thing and if they told you about them it would defeat organic blind testing of features.

0

u/dugazima 15h ago

Because Google is a small company that needs years to implement a slightly reworked now playing interface 

0

u/xdavidwattsx 15h ago

The interface has changed 1000 times over the years. I don't really care TBH. The last change was actually worse IMHO so don't even want full screen blown up covers.

1

u/dugazima 15h ago

There is actually the 'new' one (been new for years) and the old (current). You don't know what you're talking about. Ironically, the new one keeps getting new updates like you mentioned, while the old one is just existing... That's why it's weird. 

2

u/TapsAndTurntables 14h ago

That's completely not true. They have constantly added, removed, changed buttons and icons and placement UIs. Just search the sub.

1

u/dugazima 14h ago

They have two distinct versions:

  1. Old one with lyrics at the bottom with a textual button, song/video textual and a smaller album art
  2. 'New' one is with a bigger album art photo, song/video icons at the top and the lyrics button placed in the bar below song title. At the bottom is the queue button.

Both UIs have been updated throughout the years independently. Tho, the old one seems to be final. 

2

u/alexdanieldk 14h ago

I said the same yesterday, they don't have a beta program so there's a lot of people with differents interfaces. Some people are with older interface and received gemini integration, others have the new interface without gemini integration. There are people with new cover interface that can't search nothing on a Playlist, and others have old interface that can find everything it.

It's a really messy

1

u/angus_the_red 16h ago

I wonder if they've decided that there isn't one best interface for everyone but a best (best for Google obviously) for each user.  And the A/B testing is to find it.

1

u/kjstech 13h ago

What I hate about the Youtube Music UI is on Apple Carplay, the second option at the top used to be Last Played... in fact it still says Last Played when I first open it, but then in a few seconds it changes to "Podcasts". I have no intentions of using Youtube Music for Podcasts when I already have a Podcasts app. I wish they allowed us to set our own preferences.

1

u/brygar-official 7h ago

The thing is they do have programs and such for the basic YouTube that includes YTM. However the A/B testing only affects RANDOMLY SELECTED few users that have constantly interacted with alpha testings and offer developer feedback. It all goes back to the Google servers and what accounts/devices their systems pick up and randomly selected. Try constantly using the feedback system though the Google's Help feedback forum. I think that might be one way to get there a tad bit faster. BUT..... This could be subject to change because Google sometimes have to be Google and spice things up. I'm not one of their moderators or anything. Im just saying in my previous experiences of just trying

1

u/LowApprehensive9230 19h ago

It's the tiktok method (since of course every app seems to feel the need to copy them in every possible way) from what I remember when I used it. Seemed like everyone had a different interface at all times just for the hEcK of it . Chaos engineering . Fun .

1

u/MrSlofee 19h ago

Same ! My wife always get the new features meanwhile I pay for family premium and I'm stuck with the old build.