YouTube Go beta app launched in India

After announcing its "Made for India" YouTube Go app during last September's 'Google for India' event here, Google's video-hosting platform YouTube on Wednesday released a beta version of the YouTube Go app in the Play Store in India.

The app, released after months of expanded testing and refinement, will be released in other emerging markets later.

According to a post, the YouTube Go was designed with four main principles in mind.

The app provides a fresh and relevant video recommendation tailored to ones preferences. It 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, and it's social, allowing you to share videos quickly and easily with friends nearby," the YouTube blog post said.

YouTube Go home screen features trending and popular videos in an area, so that a user can find and discover videos that his/her community cares about.

On YouTube Go, a user can see a preview of the video when he/she taps on a thumbnail, giving a better sense of what the video is about.

A user can also choose to save a video for offline viewing later.

With a tagline of "Mazze Udao, Data Nahi", YouTube Go now allows a user to preview and choose the size of the video.

With YouTube Go, users can share videos with friends and family nearby without using any data.

Johanna Wright, Vice President (Product Management) at YouTube, in September announced that YouTube Go has an easy user interface, works on low connectivity, cuts cost in data usage and offers personalised suggestions to the users.

Based on browsing history, patterns and languages, the new app will also serve 10 new videos every week.

--IANS

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