YouTube’s new screensaver on TV is infuriating and you can’t even turn it off!

There's inconsiderate anti-user decisions and then there's this.

YouTube’s new screensaver on TV is infuriating and you can’t even turn it off!
youtube android tv screensaver
Credit: Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Opinion post by
Rita El Khoury

The one thing I don’t like more than companies messing with a product that works is them messing with it to add a function no one asked for. And the one thing I dislike more than that is when the change is thrown in my face, with no opt out and no setting to disable it. And the one thing I hate more than both of these is YouTube’s new screensaver on TVs.

For the past few weeks, YouTube on my Android TV box and my Chromecast with Google TV has been overtaking the TV’s screensaver function. Five minutes of inactivity with the YouTube app open and boom! Feast your eyes on a new random video thumbnail screensaver! Say I’ve paused my video to search for something on my phone or grab a drink or whatever, I come back and find a random thumbnail on my TV.