You can now get your breaking news on YouTube

It can be hard to keep up with the hectic news cycle these days, but YouTube wants to make it a little easier: some users are seeing a Breaking News carousel at the top of the desktop and mobile versions of the giant video emporium website.

As spotted by Android Police, the breaking news section lists exactly that, with stories from recognized news outlets on the current affairs in your part of the world. If you're not interested in what's happening in the world, you can dismiss the breaking news bar.

YouTube runs tests and experiments with different features on its site all the time, though these trial runs are usually pretty limited. This breaking news feature seems to be more widespread, though it doesn't appear to have rolled out to all users just yet.

Watch and learn

It's also not clear whether the breaking news section only appears when there is actually any breaking news to talk about - YouTube hasn't made any official announcement on the new carousel and it's only been around for a day or two.

Open up the desktop or mobile versions of YouTube to see for yourself if the breaking news section has appeared. It also appears to be live in the official YouTube apps for iOS and Android as well, at least for a certain section of users.

It seems Google wants everyone heading to YouTube for news reports now, as well as music videos, live gaming streams, and clips of fluffy cats. If Google makes the new breaking news section official, we'll update this post accordingly.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.