YouTube Go for Android: lite YouTube app by Google
YouTube Go is a new application for Android by Google designed for markets where available bandwidth and reception may be lacking.
While the official YouTube application for Android works well in many situations, it is not the lightest of applications.
YouTube Go has been designed by Google to improve the experience by creating a lighter app that is not as taxing to the device, and plays better in low-bandwidth or bad reception scenarios. It features a couple of unique features, but lacks also many classic YouTube features such as commenting or channels.
The app is currently in beta, and not available in all markets. While it may not be offered on Google Play, it is offered elsewhere. The app itself is not restricted, so that you can run it on your device even if you are not in a supported location.
Word of warning: The app is very heavy on the permission side of things. Permissions include rights to record audio at any time, contact modifications, modifying system settings, getting your precise location, reading your text messages and contacts.
In fact, it is necessary to register a phone number on first launch of YouTube Go to use it at all . Why that is needed? So that YouTube Go can scan the contacts regularly to show you friends that use the app.
YouTube Go
The app is a lite version of YouTube which means that you won't get many of the features of YouTube or the YouTube app.
Comments are not available for instance, and so aren't channels and many other features.
You may use the built-in search to find videos on YouTube, or by browsing the list of recommended videos. The next step is interesting, as videos don't play immediately. You get an informational prompt instead that lists different quality levels, how much Megabyte each level requires when the video is played using it, and a save button for offline watching.
Save is not available for all videos though, but I'm not sure if this is a regional feature and not available globally. Video owners may allow or deny options to save or share videos.
Apart from options to pick different quality levels based on Megabyte information, and downloading videos if allowed, it is sharing that is the apps' third major feature.
You may share videos with friends and family nearby, and google notes that video transfers use no data when shared this way, and that it only takes a quick Internet security check to play the video.
This is interesting obviously. Google does not mention how that is done, but the most likely scenario is that it is using another data transfer option for those videos and not mobile data.
Closing Words
YouTube Go is a lightweight app that delivers some interesting features. It is unfortunately quite hungry when it comes to permissions, and requires you to enter a mobile phone number and link it to a Google Account before you can even get started using it. (via Caschy)
Now You: Would you use an app like YouTube Go?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?