YouTube Creating App for Slow-Connection Video Viewing in India
Keeping mobile device-using, video-loving viewers in India happy is crucial to YouTube, but delivering quality video over slow connections is a challenge. To improve the situation, YouTube is creating YouTube Go, an app for difficult conditions.
Unlike other YouTube apps, YouTube Go is designed for offline viewing. While the blog post introducing the app doesn't go into detail, presumably the app downloads content during off-peak times. Users can choose the resolution they want—low or standard—on a per-video basis, letting them decide how much data they'd like to use for each one. The selection screen shows how large each download would be and how much storage space the user has available.
YouTube Go is community-minded, with local recommendations on the home screen. It allows users to share videos with nearby friends without using any data, likely by using mesh networking.
The app isn't completed yet, but is being rolled out slowly to new users for feedback. Those interested in trying it can sign up for notification. It should launch early in 2017.
This isn't the first time YouTube tried to solve slow connection problems in India. It introduced overnight downloading in June. YouTube Go is the result of testing app prototypes with hundreds of people in 15 Indian cities.
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