If you thought YouTube couldn’t get any bigger or better, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised. YouTube Go was designed to remove connectivity as a barrier to viewing video content. The behemoth video sharing service is aiming the YouTube Go app towards its next billion users, and towards the next generation of video content viewers.
“YouTube Go is a brand new app to help the next generation of users share and enjoy videos,” YouTube product management VP Johanna Wright says in a statement. “YouTube Go was designed and built from the ground up with insights from India, in order to bring the power of video to mobile users in a way that is more conscious of their data and connectivity, while still being locally relevant and social.
” YouTube’s official blog even mentions a tagline, “ab mazze udao, data nahin!” (have fun, don’t spend data).
With YouTube Go, the video giant aims to cater to areas where connectivity is limited. Among various other features, YouTube Go will make offline video viewing and sharing much easier. This comes after various reports of YouTube not working great on slower connections and less powerful mobile phones. Since the main idea is that connectivity should not be a barrier to watching good video content, YouTube has been making various efforts over the years. In 2014, YouTube Offline was launched where viewers were able to watch videos without having to wait for them to buffer. Smart Offline came out a few months ago using which viewers could schedule videos to be saved offline at off-peak times when more bandwidth was available.
Smart Offline is the foundation on which the YouTube Go concept has been built and the app has some very interesting features:
- Recommended and relatable videos on the home-screen: YouTube Go home screen will feature trending and popular videos based on area which will show users content that their community loves.
- Video previews: With a quick preview, users will be able to save time, and data, in case the video isn’t something they’d want to watch.
- Resolution choice: Save a video for offline viewing or stream it now, in both cases users will be able to choose the resolution they want to see the video in – which allows them to choose how much data they would want to spend on it.
- Instant offline video sharing: Users can send and receive videos instantly and offline with others using the YouTube Go app.
YouTube Go is a concept that took more than year and the main aim is to make YouTube more user-friendly towards users of the future – more aptly called “the next billion”. The app is open to Indian users for testing and will be rolled out gradually over the next few months for feedback.
A wider launch is set for early next year – but it isn’t mentioned is this will be a global launch.
