The YouTube team has been collecting ideas and testing prototypes with people across 15 cities in India. With their input, they built an app that they says is faster, more relevant, and more affordable, with innovative new features.

“YouTube Go is designed with four concepts in mind,” writes Johanna Wright, the company’s VP of product management. "It’s relatable, with video recommendations and a user interface that is made for you. The app is designed to be offline first and work even when there’s low or no connectivity. And finally, it’s a social experience, connecting you with the people and content you care about.”

Earlier this year, the company found that user experience on the app is “not great” on slower connections and less powerful mobile phones, as Wright says. The company has taken steps to improve the experience of users in low-bandwidth areas in the past. It launched YouTube Offline in 2014, which allows people to watch videos without suffering from buffering. 

A few months ago, it also rolled out Smart Offline, a feature which lets users schedule videos to be saved offline later at off-peak times, when data is faster and/or cheaper. “But we realised that for the next generation of YouTube users to fully discover all that YouTube has to offer, we had to reimagine the YouTube mobile app from the ground up,” notes Wright.

She adds that YouTube Go will be rolled out to more people over the next few months. The company plans to get user feedback and improve the product before launching it widely early next year.

New features:

  • Relevant videos – The YouTube Go homescreen features trending and popular videos in the user’s area;
  • Previewing – Tapping the thumbnail of a video triggers a quick preview of the content, letting users see what the video is about before they save or play it;
  • Choose your resolution – Users can see and choose the amount of data they want to spend on a video; and
  • Share videos – the new app lets users send and receive videos instantly and offline with others using the app.

Read YouTube’s blog post on the new app here.