YouTube builds castle to make slow-loading videos cute

Users have started seeing an animated castle instead of the familiar loading spinner

The animation appears to have been around for several weeks (Reuters)

YouTube appears to have tinkered around with its loading spinner, in an attempt to make slow internet connections a little less painful to deal with.

There are few things more mind-numbing than that spinning circle, an all-too-familiar sight that serves no purpose other than to reiterate just how slow your internet connection is, as if you needed reminding.

Cue YouTube’s new animated castle, which has started appearing in place of the spinner for some users. Here it is in action:

According to Android Police, the new loading icon has been around for several weeks, but seems to be appearing increasingly often.

It reportedly only pops up when a video first loads, with the regular circular spinner returning whenever a clip buffers mid-way through.

The castle unfortunately doesn’t affect loading times, but it’s a refreshing visual change.

Google, which owns YouTube, has clearly been focusing on the user experience of people with slow connections. The company recently updated Google Search for Android, with the app now saving queries when you have bad signal and producing results once you re-establish a connection.