Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

YouTube TV fixes one of the more annoying parts of its guide

The YouTube TV channel guide.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

YouTube TV — the most popular live-streaming service in the U.S. with more than 8 million subscribers at last count — has quietly fixed what has to be one of its more maddening features (0r bugs, depending on how you see things). Its program guide is lengthy. But until recently, it had a habit of bouncing between the channel you’re currently on when you’d open the guide back up and bouncing back up to the very top of the list if you didn’t time things just right.

That’s always been annoying, at best, especially if you’re a channel-flipper making your way down the list.

Now, hitting the back button on your remote takes you back into the list at the channel you’re currently watching. Hit back again and it’ll pop back up to the top of the list.

This is far from the world’s biggest problem for any streaming service. But the change makes the action of going to the live guide much more predictable. No longer do you have to wonder if you’ll be able to easily change to the next channel in your list, or if you’ll have to scroll all the way through.

Exactly how big an annoyance this is (or was) also has to do with whether you’ve customized your YouTube TV channels (which is something you definitely should try). If your channels are arranged how you like them instead of how YouTube feeds them, then maybe you don’t have to hop around as much. In any event, it’s a welcome change. Maybe not quite something that belongs in the best YouTube TV tips and tricks, but it’s close.

YouTube TV remains $75 a month for more than 100 channels. It’s available on every major streaming platform, has an add-on option for some live events (mostly sports) and a bunch of on-demand content in 4K resolution, and it allows for as much cloud-based recording as you can handle.

Editors' Recommendations

Phil Nickinson
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
YouTube TV just got even better on iPhones and iPads
Multiview on YouTube TV on an iPad.

If you use the most popular live-streaming service on an iPhone or iPad, things just got even better. YouTube TV — which boasts more than 8 million subscribers — just pushed multiview live on Apple's mobile devices, as previously promised.

It works basically the same way it does on a television. YouTube TV picks the programs available in multiview, and you get them all at once, with audio coming from one of the shows. Tap another, and the audio switches. And just as before, you can get multiview for sports, news, business, or weather. (Though we definitely don't recommend watching four news channels at once in an election year.) It's just in time for March Madness, which is great, though we hope you'll be able to pick your own games instead of just sticking with the multiple viewing options YouTube TV gives. This will be great come fall, though, when the new season of NFL Sunday Ticket takes hold.

Read more
What is YouTube Premium? Price, content, and more
YouTube Music

YouTube is such a common part of internet infrastructure that it's now used for everything from entertainment to recording work events to livestreaming conferences to publishing the newest music videos. But as the platform has grown, it has become more and more reliant on ads. If you're sick of ads before, during, and after YouTube videos, then you can consider paying for a subscription for YouTube Premium so you won't have to see any more ads while browsing or watching videos.

The YouTube family of products can be a bit confusing, however. As well as YouTube Premium, there are other paid services like YouTube Music, YouTube TV, the now-defunct YouTube Go, plus some free movies on YouTube you don't want to miss. But the price for YouTube Premium has changed since it launched, so it's worth taking some time to consider how much you'll be paying and whether it's worth it for you -- or even if you could save some money using options like the YouTube Premium family plan or the free trial.

Read more
YouTube TV just added a huge new add-on for $15 a month
Zee Family on YouTube TV.

Zee Family is now available on YouTube TV for $15 a month. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

YouTube TV is still limited to the U.S., but it just brought a big piece of the world to the streaming service. The Zee Family add-on brings a number of channels from a range of Indian dialects to the service. It costs $15 a month and has a free seven-day trial.

Read more