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YouTube extends its ‘pinch-to-zoom’ feature to more 18:9 smartphones

Not too long ago, Google added an option to the YouTube app that was clearly designed for the Pixel 2 XL —  a new “pinch-to-zoom” gesture which cropped 16:9 video to fit the 18:9 display. The Pixel 2 XL, however, isn’t the only 18:9 smartphone out there, and now that option is being extended to a few other devices.

In YouTube for Android’s latest update, v12.44, the app has extended this new gesture from the Pixel 2 XL to other tall aspect ratio devices. So far, it’s been confirmed for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG V30, but it should, at least in theory, also work on other phones that have different aspect ratios.

Samsung originally got by without Google’s assistance by including its own zoom button on the Galaxy S8 and Note 8, but other OEMs such as LG neglected to do so, leaving their users only with the ability to have their content letterboxed.

Android Police points out that previous versions of the YouTube app on Android don’t have this feature enabled on other devices, so if you want to try it out, you’ll need to update to 12.44 either through the Play Store or by sideloading an APK.


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