New Delhi :
Indian users will now be able to watch videos even in areas with poor internet connectivity as Tech giant Google launches its new app ‘YouTube Go’.
The product was announced in September last year. It has now been launched in a beta phase.
Beta phase generally begins when the software is feature complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs.
“Today, after months of expanded testing and refinement, we are happy to announce that we are making the beta version of YouTube Go available for download on the Google Play Store in India”, it said in a statement.
YouTube Go has been designed and built from insights gathered from India and also allows users to share videos with friends nearby.
“...the app is designed to be offline first and improve the experience of watching videos on a slower network; it gives you more control over data usage, by providing choice and transparency into the amount of data spent on streaming or saving videos”, it said.
Video consumption in India has grown at a massive pace, especially after the launch of free data services by telecom operator Reliance Jio under its promotional offers.
“We will 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”, the company added.
YouTube Go will also allow users to preview videos before they save or watch the content as well as choose the resolution when saving or streaming videos, so as to control the amount of data they spend on that video.
In 2014, Google had launched YouTube Offline to help users watch videos without waiting for the videos to buffer. It has also rolled out a ‘Smart Offline’ feature that allows users to schedule videos to be saved offline later at off-peak times when data is faster and cheaper.
