Google will discontinue its YouTube Go app in August
Google has announced that it is discontinuing its YouTube Go app in August 2022. The search giant is recommending users to install the main YouTube app, or access the streaming service using mobile browsers.
We need to travel back in time, to understand the importance of the app. In 2014, Google surprised users by partnering with OEMs around the world, when it announced Android One. It offered a stock Android experience without custom skins, and in a world where ads and bloatware on devices was a common thing, this was a boon. The lighter version of Android was perfect for the mid-range market, and was quite popular until Google abandoned the effort in 2020.
In 2017, Google introduced an even lighter version of its mobile operating system called, Android Go. This was designed with ultra-affordable devices in mind, especially for countries where access to high-speed internet was considered a luxury. However, the hardware restrictions, such as low RAM and weak processors on low-end phones, meant that apps couldn't run properly on Android Go. This is when Google introduced more optimized versions of its apps including YouTube Go, Google Maps Go, Assistant Go, and Gallery Go. These highly optimized apps could run efficiently on low-end hardware. Among other things, the YouTube Go app allowed users to download videos and watch them offline. The app also had a data saver mode to control the amount of data that was used for streaming videos.
Now that YouTube Go is being shuttered, will it spell the end of Android Go too?
Why is YouTube Go being shuttered?
The Mountain View company says that it has optimized the performance of the main YouTube app to support low-end phones, and slow network connections. It also highlights options to comment, post videos, create content, and the dark theme as key features of the app, some things which were not available in its lighter counterpart. These are the reasons why YouTube Go is being discontinued, in favor of the regular app. The announcement, spotted by 9to5Google, reveals that Google is working on bringing some improvements for the YouTube app, that will further decrease its mobile data usage.
YouTube Go is no longer available on the Google Play Store. If you had downloaded it previously, you can still access it from the Store app. The media streaming app was last updated in October 2021.
Google ending support one of its products is nothing new, you can find a whole list of them on the Killed By Google website. As a matter of fact, the digital graveyard already lists YouTube Go as a product headed to its doom. Google Talk, Inbox by Gmail, and Picasa are perhaps the ones I miss the most. Google Chrome Apps are the next in line for removal, the company will end support for these in June 2022.
I can recommend the NewPipe app if downloading videos for offline playback is a priority for you. New entrants like LibreTube and SkyTube are fairly impressive as well. All three of these are open source, and have built-in ad blockers in addition to various features that you may find useful.
Do you use YouTube Go?
Mr in charge or who ever when the app is not in use any more how do i save alll my interesting video on youtubego will those videos permanently be removed from my phone cause i really dont want to lose them guide me on how to save them
Why can’t I install YouTube on my Android 8.1
Youtube-go
I have never used this app, useless telemetry tool ever done by Google. Furthermore I prefer to see the Youtube videos through Firefox using its own website, because the Youtube app is also bad as hell, one of the worst data collector and a cache eater so far. Thanks @Ashwin for the article! :]
so… what is the point of your comment? you are giving still your information to Google, if you really cared about your ‘data’ you would not use Youtube, or you would use invidious or piped which can be slower but would be better to avoid Youtube even knowing your IP and location etc etc. You could also use youtube-dl with mpv or mpc-be/hc, but Google would be able to see your IP and know you are downloading through their servers, just like all those apps newpipe and etc etc, that don’t stop google but will not give google too much data but Google would still know you are you.
Anyway, your comments as usual don’t make sense, either don’t use youtube or stop complaining about how Google collects data because it seems you love complaining about their business which is obviously based on users data but I am sure you have no solid proof about Google misusing users data, so I am sure you are just parroting and you want to look cool by going against Google while still using their services but pretending you are doing something “better” only because you use Firefox which ironically loves receiving half billion dollars from google, I mean, the ones who love gathering users data and building even extensions for that, the ones who love censorship and de-platforming… do you think they do all that by not gathering users data? They are not better than Google, but keep pretending and living in your fantasy fake little bubble where you are safer than using plain and simple youtube dot com.
@Anonymous I could say that “your comments don’t make sense neither as usual” too, because it’s easy to attack, however I don’t care an onion because they are only comments from a subjective point of view. Just relax and please take it easy because I don’t like Google methods however I use Chrome, I don’t like Microsoft methods however I use Edge and W11, and I don’t like some things about Linux however I use Ubuntu. I don’t like Ukraine-Russia war however all Europe is still buying gas to Russia and I heat my room with it. And I don’t like some Mozilla methods however I use Firefox. Furthermore I don’t like probably one article of Ghacks per week however I still reading Ghacks because the point, the absolutely point of this that you are asking for is that people can complain and use whatever they want because opinions are subjective and between black and white there are dozens of grey, a vaste of unusual ways to understand life. Nothing is perfect, including madness.