NEW DELHI: Designed for the Indian audience, tech giant Google has unveiled its new app ‘YouTube Go’ that will allow users to save and watch videos even in poor connectivity and share them with friends over bluetooth.
“YouTube Go is a brand new app that has been designed and built from insights gathered from India. It is completely reimagined from the ground up for the next generation of YouTube users and is a result of extensive research done across 15 Indian cities,” YouTube Vice President (Product Management) Johanna Wright said at the ‘Google for India 2016’ event here.
YouTube Go will be rolled out over the next few months to more testers in India to get their feedback and improve the product before launching it to the general public, she added.
India is one of the fastest growing markets for Internet usage, driven by strong consumption of video content. The number of Internet users, most of whom are logging online through their smartphones, is pegged to grow from 350 million to 650 million by 2020.
In 2014, YouTube had launched the offline feature that allowed users to download videos. A few months ago, it rolled out ‘Smart Offline’ that helped users schedule downloads of videos at off-peak times.
“YouTube Go will also give users transparency and control over how much data they consume on videos, allowing them to preview videos first and choose the video’s file size before they save it offline to watch later,” she said.
Wright added that the product took about a year to develop.
YouTube Go will also help users discover trending and popular videos in their area as well as offer a short preview so that the user can decide whether to save the video or not.
They would also be able to choose the resolution of the video through the new app.
“YouTube Go will gradually roll out to more people over the next few months, getting their feedback and improving the product before launching it widely,” she said. (AGENCIES)
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