YouTube's New Pop-Up Button Encourages You to 'Play Something'

YouTube is developing a "Play Something" button that pops up and plays a random video. According to 9to5Google, the new function is now limited to the popular video site's Android app and is not available to all users.

It's not the first time YouTube has attempted a play something function, and Netflix users may recall seeing a similar button at some point in the past.

However, unlike previous experiments' Play Something banners and buttons, this button appears above your feed (so be cautious where you click) instead of as a tile embedded into it.

YouTube's new pop-up button wants you to 'Play Something'

Clicking it will send you to a random video picked by the YouTube algorithm and shown in the same vertical player as YouTube Shorts. 

Strangely, these videos can include either Shorts or longer content, but both use the Shorts player—standard YouTube videos just have large black bars at the top and bottom. 

Sadly, it does not appear that Play Something can be used as a shuffle function since the app reverts to the standard Shorts player controls when you click the new button, limiting you to playing one video at a time. 

That said, once you're in the Shorts player, simply swipe up to load a new random Short.

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