Google announces YouTube Go — a YouTube app for emerging markets

A few days ago we reported that Google enabled offline video playback for YouTube users in Pakistan. It was widely seen as a positive step in increasing popularity of platform among users who lack fast and stable internet connection.

Now Google is taking another step to improve the experience for users in emerging markets. On their official YouTube blog, Google today announced YouTube Go — an app made for developing countries. This app features the offline video playback feature with some other cool functionality to enjoy content without using too many data.

An overview of all its features is:

• Find and discover relatable videos right on the home screen: YouTube Go home-screen features trending and popular videos in your area so that you’ll find and fall in love with new videos that you and your community care about.

• Preview videos before you save or watch: Not sure if you want to watch the video? On YouTube Go when you tap on a thumbnail, it’ll trigger a quick preview of the video, giving you a better sense of what the video is about before you decide to save or play it.

• Choose your resolution when saving or streaming videos: Whether you’d like to save a video for offline viewing later, or stream it now, you can see and choose the amount of data you’d like to spend on that video.

• Share videos with friends nearby: Share videos with friends and family nearby without using any data. You can send and receive videos instantly and offline with others using the YouTube Go app.

The app is not yet available for download and it is expected to be tested in India first and then released to other countries. You can signup to know when it is available for download here.

We’ll provide you more details about this app once it’s released for users in Pakistan.