YouTube has recently received an update which saw some improvements to the interface, multi-tasking and more, but it seems that Google and the YouTube team are not resting on their laurels, with new updates such as cache offline and ‘add to device’ functions coming to YouTube and their apps in November.
The Youtube Creators blog has announced that a new feature designed to help users when they have no internet connection available will soon be coming. The feature is not expected to be a complete ‘offline’ viewing experience that is offered by apps such as TubeMate, which basically go against the terms of service for YouTube but will according to the blog ‘allow people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period when an Internet connection is unavailable’.
It’s expected to be a short term offline viewing experience, with TechGeek advising that an email they received is advising that users will be able to add the video to their device and have 48 hours to complete viewing the video, after which time users will need to re-connect to the internet to resume watching the video.
YouTube creators are getting the ability to disable the option on their YouTube channel ahead of the scheduled rollout, however the ability to disable the feature by country and by video will be coming soon.
This could be a great boon for YouTube users potentially, I have been installing apps such as Tubemate for a very long time as the pre-caching of Youtube videos leaves a lot to be desired. YouTube is at the top of the game when it comes to online video hosting, so it is great to see they have some great plans for their mobile apps coming up.
Do you use the YouTube mobile app or apps like Tubemate to download the video first?
Can’t see this resolving my need for Tubemate entirely, though it would solve the simple “I want to watch this YouTube video but my phone reception is pretty crappy here” use case.
Wait, wasn’t this one of the primary reasons why they blocked Microsoft’s native Windows Phone 8 application?
A half hearted attempt to keep viewers from needing to use third party apps, while giving the content posters the keys to keep viewers needing to use those same apps.
I know what I will be doing, I’ll keep using TubeMate.