Watching YouTube videos is the most data-intensive activity that you can do online. A 10-minute video at 480p (the YouTube default) uses 40 megabytes. To help those who struggle with expensive data charges, Google has released YouTube Go, an app that promises to reduce data consumption when watching YouTube videos and streams.
This is good news for mobile users in areas with weak network signals or limited Internet connectivity. However, users can still control on how much data the app can use. Videos can be downloaded for offline viewing, either to the phone or to an SD card.
Users can also transfer or share videos to their friends or family nearby without using data. The videos will be transferred within seconds.
Some Features of YouTube Go:
- Preview videos before downloading or watching
- Choose how many MBs to use on videos
- Download videos to the phone or SD card
- Play videos without buffering
- Watch videos anytime and anywhere, even with slow or no Internet connection
- Watch downloaded videos many times with no extra data charges
- Share videos with friends and family nearby without using any data
- Transfer video files at super-fast speed; send and receive videos in seconds
The YouTube Go app has already been downloaded 10 million times as of this writing. The app was announced on September 2016 and launched first in India for the exclusive beta testing before being released to 14 other countries. Google didn’t announce the list of 130 countries where YouTube Go is now available for download.
I searched for the app on Google Play and true enough, it’s available for download in the Philippines. But it shows a message saying, “This app is in development. It may be unstable.” I will test it in the coming days.
Last year, Google announced Android Go, a lighter version of Android that is specifically designed for entry-level smartphones with 1GB of RAM or less. It can accommodate smaller and lighter apps to give users more storage space. I imagine that YouTube Go will soon be bundled into Android Go when it’s finally released.
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