Whether you’re of the camp that suggests YouTube, along with other video sites, is responsible for the erosion of the world that has been built since the first Renaissance, or of the camp that doesn’t care while watching cat videos; it’s impossible to ignore the sheer volume of videos the world both watches and uploads every second of the day.
YouTube offering offline viewing
YouTube video watching is set to become even more pervasive for the billion-odd daily users of the Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)-owned video site soon when it begins offering offline viewing in November. Yes, over a billion monthly viewers. Looking back, Google got an absolute steal of a deal when it picked the company up for just over a billion dollars.
Now viewers’ ability to watch YouTube won’t be interrupted by “something as simple as a morning commute” says YouTube on its Creators blog on Tuesday.
The service will allow users to pre-download videos from YouTube that can be streamed while offline. The amount of video that users will be able to store is yet to be announced by Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), but the feature will be hosted on YouTube’s app on Android and iOS. According to AllThingsD.com, ads will still be run on the videos and viewers will be able to save the clips on their phone for up to 48 hours.
Google’s Preload feature for Android app
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is building off Preload, a feature that was added to the YouTube for Android app early this summer. With preload, users are able to store video from channel subscriptions or “Watch Later” list for playback on phones and tablets later. Customers do, however, have to watch at least one second of video before it can be stored.
This is a big step back from YouTube’s policy of not allowing downloads of videos from its site. There are, however, countless third party apps and browser extensions that allow for the downloading and storage of said videos. Quite simply, 25 percent of YouTube’s videos are accessed by mobile devices, and this has forced Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s hand in regards to this policy. Though, once again, it’s believed that videos will only be stored on mobile devices for 48 hours.
Offline viewing joins other upgrades to the YouTube mobile app this summer. Last month saw YouTube viewers allowed to browse for the next video while watching another, and they also added MixBit that allows users to record videos and mash clips together to create a 16-second video.
