YouTube Go Launches in India; Brings Offline Viewing, Lower Data Consumption and Video Sharing

Early this year, YouTube announced YouTube Go specifically for developing markets with relatively slower internet speeds, starting with India. The app was supposed to be a lighter version of the original YouTube app.

After months of testing and refinement, the company has officially launched the app on Google Play Store in the beta version. This means that the app may be in the development phase, but offers you an early access to YouTube Go.

“It’s relatable, with fresh and relevant video recommendations tailored to your preferences; the app is designed to be offline first and improve the experience of watching videos on a slower network; it gives you more control over data usage, by providing choice and transparency into the amount of data spent on streaming or saving videos. And finally, it’s social, allowing you to share videos quickly and easily with friends nearby,” says Google.

YouTube Go has been designed exclusively for India right now, and the company might expand its presence as it gets feedback in the next few months. However, it has been designed and built from the ground up with insights from India.

What does YouTube Go offer?

• Customizable home screen: YouTube Go home screen features trending and popular videos in your area that are relevant to you
• Preview videos before you save or watch: On YouTube Go, you will first see a preview of the video before you watch, so you that you can decide to watch it or skip it altogether
• Choose your resolution when saving or streaming videos: In order to control the amount of data you spend on a video, Go will allow you to set the resolution for the video
• Share videos with friends nearby: Share videos with friends and family nearby without using any data. You can send and receive videos instantly and offline with others using the YouTube Go app

How to get started?

Now that you have decided to download the app, go to Google Play Store to download the beta version. You must keep in mind that the app is unstable and in the development phase, so it might close down randomly because of bugs. But this is all you have got to get early access to the official app. Download the app from here.

The app is only 8.5MB in size, so it won’t take up much space on your phone either. Once downloaded, open up the app and choose the language for your content. Upon choosing language, you will be prompted to enter your phone number so as to see who else has the same app.

The app will request you to associate the same number with your Google account. Clicking next will take you to the verification page, which will be done automatically by Google. Upon verification, you finally move to the main app page.

You can now see your homepage which will have videos curated for you. There will be two tab on the page – Home and Saved. You can choose to remove any video by clicking the three dot icon on video and choosing remove the video.

Now, here comes the main part. When you select a video to watch it, you will be prompted to choose between basic quality and standard quality. Along with these two, you will also get an option to view the video or save it. The screen will display the amount of storage on your smartphone, and all videos can be saved to the microSD card if the phone supports one.

The screen also provides specific shots from the video to give you a preview, along with the description of the video. This is an extremely efficient way of making sure you don’t click on unnecessary videos and save data.

Now to send or receive any video from your friends, you go to the saved videos tab, click on ‘Send’ and choose the video to send. Your smartphone will set up a hotspot to connect with devices and friends around. Upon choosing a contact, the other person must click on ‘Receive’ to get the same video on their phone. You can delete the video from your phone from the options button.

YouTube has designed the app to make it as simple as possible, and by offering only a few features that are so handy, users in India would be able to save data and make sure they’re using the GBs when they really need it. Go also makes it easy to share videos with friends, so if you’re out of data but really need to watch a video by your favourite vlogger, you can request your friend to share it with you.

Source: Google