Following months of internal testing, Google launched the YouTube Go beta in India, the Alphabet-owned company announced on Tuesday. This streamlined version of the regular YouTube Android app was already available for download for almost two months, but with YouTube now officially starting to beta test it in India, it seems like the product might be hitting the market in the near future. There’s still no word on how long the YouTube Go beta in India might last or whether Google is planning to expand its availability to more territories, but more details on the service will likely follow shortly.
In the meantime, users in India can download the unreleased version of YouTube Go by following the Google Play Store link below. The app is compatible with most smartphones and tablets running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and newer, so you should be able to use it on virtually every contemporary Android device. The concept of the app is relatively straightforward as YouTube Go was primarily designed as an alternative to YouTube for users with slow or unreliable Internet connections. The app allows you to watch short previews of videos and even lets you download content, though the maximum resolution that you can download for offline viewing is currently set to 480p. Once downloaded, videos can not only be watched offline indefinitely, but you can even share them with other YouTube Go users via Bluetooth.
As expected, YouTube Go serves ads just like the regular YouTube app does and wasn’t designed too differently to its alternative, so all users of the popular video platform should find its interface to be relatively familiar. Due to its focus on providing access to the YouTube platform even without a fast and reliable Internet connection, it’s reasonable to presume that YouTube Go is only aimed at developing markets and likely won’t be launching in developed countries at any point in the future. However, the target audience of YouTube Go might be getting the app sooner rather than later seeing how Google has been working on it for over half a year now, having initially announced the service in September.
