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.
