There is great news for YouTube addicts located in India. Google today introduced the ‘YouTube Go’ app to address concerns of video buffering and streaming as a result of insufficient broadband.
Part of the search giant’s ‘Next Billion’ program, the new YouTube app will stream videos faster and reduce data usage to a significant extent. YouTube Go is designed to be offline first and will work even when there is low or no connectivity.
In a blog post, Johanna Wright, Vice President of Product Management, YouTube, said the app was built from scratch after a team of engineers, designers, and researchers traveled to India and collected ideas from people across 15 cities.
“We’ll gradually roll out YouTube Go to more and more people over the next few months, getting their feedback and improving the product before launching it widely early next year,” she wrote.
With the app, users can take advantage of the new preview function to know what to expect before choosing to save or play the video. The videos can even be shared with friends without using up any data.
In addition to that, users can discover relatable videos right on the home screen. It will feature trending and popular videos in the local area. That is not all, the app allows to save a video in any preferred resolution for offline viewing later. And through Bluetooth, you can share the same with friends and family.
Google has not announced a date when the app will be officially launched. There is a sign up page for those who would like to be notified when it is out.
India is the second largest market for YouTube. And over 50% of YouTube consumption comes from mobile phones.
It may be recalled that in 2014 Google introduced the YouTube Offline that allows to save videos offline to watch later during low or no internet connectivity. Just recently it also introduced a feature called Smart Offline that lets users takes advantage of cheaper data rates during the night.