YouTube TV is the most popular live TV streaming service on the market, with 5 million active subscribers as of July. The service offers over 100 live channels, unlimited cloud DVR storage, up to 3 streams, and 6 accounts per household. But until today, it was missing an incredibly basic feature. For nearly six years, YouTube TV didn’t have a clock.
On Friday, the official YouTube TV account on Twitter confirmed that the virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) is finally getting a clock feature.
Until now, there was no way to tell the time anywhere on the YouTube TV user interface. You could flip over to a live channel that shows the time or open the live guide to see the current time block, but there was no actual clock anywhere in the app.
Now, YouTube TV will show the time in the top-left corner of the home screen whenever you open the app. You can also see the time in the top-right corner of the screen when you bring up the UI while watching content. YouTube says the feature is currently rolling out on living room devices, so you won’t see it on the mobile app or in browsers yet.
Although I’m aware that most of us don’t go anywhere without our cell phones, which can tell us the time any time at a glance, this is still a great addition. As a YouTube TV subscriber myself, I typically use the service for live sports. When I start the app, I always want to know what time it is so I can tune in to whatever game I plan to watch on time. Being able to check the time without a secondary device is small, but genuinely useful.
YouTube TV doesn’t get new features as often as some other services, but earlier this year, the team did finally bring picture-in-picture support to iPhone and iPad.
