YouTube Go is the application that Google launched a few years ago with the idea of covering a niche that was much more common back then: Android phones with low-end hardware in emerging markets with reduced connectivity and data rates beyond the reach of most of the population. Without going any further, it was presented in India before anywhere else.
But everything has changed since that already distant 2016 and YouTube Go seems to have fulfilled its cycle, according to the Internet giant in a farewell article in which it sets the final goodbye to the app next AugustIn just three months. Until then it can continue to be used, not downloading normally.
“When we launched YouTube Go in 2016, it was designed for viewers in places where connectivity, data prices, and low-end devices kept us from delivering the best experience on the main YouTube app,” the company explains. “Since then we’ve invested in improvements to the main YouTube app that make it work better in these environments, while also providing a better user experience.”
In essence, they say they have improved the performance of the normal application to offer better performance on entry terminals or on slower networks, as well as working on improving control tools to reduce the use of mobile data, so YouTube Go is simply no longer necessary in the scenarios for which it was created.
YouTube Go
It should be remembered that YouTube Go did not consume less for nothing, but among other tweaks, for removing content creator functions from the application such as recording and uploading videos and even commenting on the videos of others. Features that have been requested by many YouTube Go users for a long time but for obvious reasons were never implemented in the app.
YouTube Go, whose last update dates back to October of last year, did not even incorporate the dark theme so fashionable in recent times. But it doesn’t matter now, because after more than 500 million downloads in six years, YouTube Go will disappear from view next August, leaving the original YouTube app as the default option.
In fact, Google recommends YouTube Go users to jump to YouTube without further ado, or at most to use the service through its website with a compatible web browser. If YouTube Go will continue to work on the devices on which it is installed, nothing has been said, although it would be logical, at least for a while.
