Google unveils YouTube Go for offline viewing and sharing

If you’ve been trying to take your YouTube videos on the go, but don’t always have the best coverage or a beefy data plan, you’ll be pleased to hear that Google wants to remedy the problem with its new YouTube Go app. This new app allows viewers to save videos for offline watching and sharing at a later date, but it will only be available to Indian users, at least at first.

YouTube Go was unveiled at a Google product event in Delhi. It is designed with Indian consumers in mind, and they will be the first to be able to download the new app. The app builds on India’s Smart Offline feature that was added into the main YouTube app earlier in the year, by offering additional controls over offline storage.

“YouTube Go was designed and built from the ground up with insights from India, in order to bring the power of video to mobile users in a way that is more conscious of their data and connectivity, while still being locally relevant and social.”– Johanna Wright, VP of YouTube product management

The app allows users to preview videos and pick the download quality around their storage capacity and data allowance. There’s also a local share feature that can be used to swap videos to other phones without having to use the internet, which presumably makes use of a Bluetooth connection. The app keeps track of your saved videos in a handy tab, so users won’t have to sift through download folders to find a specific video.

YouTube Go is currently accepting registrations from those who want to be one of the first to download it. There’s no word yet on exactly when the app will go live in India, nor if or when YouTube Go will be available in other parts of the world.