Google’s YouTube Go to expand to more than 130 countries

As indicated in a blog post published earlier this week, Google is looking to further expand YouTube Go, the data light version of its YouTube service, to over 130 mobile markets across the globe. Previously, the feature was only made available to 15 countries around the world, but soon it will be enjoyed by over a hundred more in the next few weeks.

Google had first unveiled YouTube Go back in September of 2016, along with the official introduction of its Google Stations initiative (an ambitious project that aims to provide Wi-Fi connections, free of charge, inside buses and trains anywhere in the planet). YouTube Go was originally designed to used for Indian mobile users, a good majority of whom had to contend with either unreliable or inconsistent web connections. In April of last year, Google went on to roll out the beta version of YouTube Go in the Indian mobile market, and then broadened the beta deployment to also include additional markets such as Indonesia, Nigeria, and Thailand, just to name a few.

What makes the YouTube Go mobile app different from YouTube’s main app is that it comes with a number of functionalities that takes into account certain factors such as low signal strength, high costs of accessing data connections, and even the use of SD cards on devices that run on Google’s Android mobile operating system, which is very popular in emerging mobile markets such as India. 

For instance, YouTube Go comes with a tool that allows mobile users to manage their playback settings, like choosing low quality streaming when the web connection is slow, or saving YouTube videos for later viewing when users are not connected to the world wide web (video content can be saved on a handset or through the use of an SD card). 

The YouTube Go mobile app also offers a feature that lets users share videos to other people nearby. This is achieved by locating that other user’s device by way of Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), and then taking full advantage of a Wi-Fi hotspot and Wi-Fi Direct in order to share videos. To keep things safe and secure, the recipient of the video being shared will have to download a unique decryption key supplied by YouTube’s own servers before he or she can gain access to the content.

Want to give YouTube Go a try? You can get get the app through the Google Play store.