YouTube to Add Offline Viewing for Videos on Mobile Devices
YouTube has announced that it will launch a new feature on
its mobile apps enabling viewers to watch videos even when they are offline.
This feature will be available from November for mobile users – do you think it
is a good move for the video sharing site?
Image - www.theguardian.com
Currently YouTube does not allow users to download videos
from its site, even though there are a number of third-party apps and browser
extensions which are designed to let people do this. The new feature will let
viewers add videos temporarily to their devices to store and watch, but only
for a short period of time when they are not connected to the Internet.
The Official YouTube Partners & Creators Blog commented
that this new feature came because “we’re always exploring ways to bring more
viewers to your content. As part of this effort, later this year we’ll launch a
new feature on YouTube’s mobile apps that will help reach fans – even when they’re
not connected to the Internet”. This will allow fans to continue to listening
to music when they previously wouldn’t have been able to, for instance when
they are on the morning commute. This suggests a move to increase engagement on
its mobile devices and follows other developments introduced earlier in the
year. For instance, in August it made it possible for people to browse and
explore video recommendations while another video is already streaming on YouTube’s
mobile apps.
In June 2012, YouTube began experimenting with offline
viewing by allowing users to watch pre-cached videos in an update to its Android
app. YouTube distinguished between the new feature allowing users to watch
precached videos and total downloading of videos because they required viewers
to watch at least the first second of the video while they are online. There is
also a distinction because with the new feature you will be able to watch
videos without an Internet connection but you will not be able to keep them
indefinitely. This seems to reflect the growing use of mobile devices to access social media, and the increase in new features specifically designed to complement smart phone use.
For now we will have to wait and see until the feature is
released in November and further announcements are posted on the official
YouTube Blog.
What do you think?
Would you use this new feature on YouTube? Do you already
use a YouTube app on your mobile device?
YouTube to Add Offline Viewing for Videos on Mobile Devices
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Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Rating:
Anonymous
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