Google launches 'YouTube Go' Beta version; lets you download and share offline videos

Remember the YouTube app that Google promised last year which would let you download videos from the service. The one that Google informed that they are working on and it will be released soon. The company has finally released the beta version of YouTube Go along with a Signup page . We installed the app and it works as promised.

After installing the app from the Google Play Store listing , you need to register the app using your mobile number just like you would on Google Allo or Google Duo. The verification works through an OTP code and then it collates and suggests you videos based on your ‘Thumbs up’, Subscribers and YouTube history in the ‘Home’ tab. The second tab is ‘Saved’ which gives you a list of the videos that you have saved on your smartphone.

The downloads work fairly simply. Tapping on any video shows you the ‘Download’ popup, giving you details about the free space on your smartphone and the quality of video that you want to ‘Save’ or ‘Play’. There is no direct way to play any video using this app unless you tap and then select ‘Play’ to play any video. There are a few interesting tidbits that we came across while using the app. The first one was the presence of an ‘in-app updater’ in their ‘Settings’ menu.

The second thing that we noticed was the fact that the mobile number being used to register this app should be attached with your Google account or YouTube ID. You could turn the notifications about ‘Daily videos’ in the settings menu. Another important thing is that when you tap on any video, the app shows you snapshots or screengrabs taken from the video in quick succession to help you preview your video before you download the video. The popup also gives the option to download in Low quality or Standard quality along with the size of the video content.

Last but not the least, this app lets you share the videos with your friends or family using the ‘Nearby’ feature without the need of any internet. Its not known if the company is using NFC or Android Beam using NFC protocol.