The YouTube Go app will shut down in August 2022, Alphabet has announced.
The mobile app was designed to be a stripped-down version of the main YouTube app, available on Android — its features are limited so that it better functions in locations with bad or costly data connectivity.
But, the reasoning goes, the app hasn’t proved useful and popular enough to keep around. Current YouTube Go users are encoraged to download the non-stripped-down YouTube app instead.
YouTube Go’s Time Has YouTube Gone
YouTube Go will begin sunsetting in August, though there’s no word on how long the process will take. Users should make the switch now, rather than wait until the last minute. They have two options: They can either install the core YouTube app or simply visit youtube.com in their mobile browsers.
The main YouTube app is better in every way, since the Go version doesn’t allow fairly basic abilities: Go users can’t comment, post, create content, or use a dark theme.
“When we launched YouTube Go in 2016,” the YouTube team explains in their announcement, “it was designed for viewers in locations where connectivity, data prices, and low-end devices prevented us from delivering the best experience in the main YouTube app. Since then, YouTube has invested in improvements to the main YouTube app that make it perform better in these environments, while also delivering a better user experience which is inclusive of our entire community.”
The main YouTube app has boosted its performance for all entry-level devices as well as optimized for slower networks. Now, the YouTube Go app is redundant.
The team says they’ll roll out even more features aimed at helping those with less data the in near future as well, telling users to stay tuned for “additional user controls that help to decrease mobile data usage for viewers with limited data.”
YouTube’s Rolling Out More Features
Those extra controls aren’t the only changes YouTube has been making recently: The popular video sharing service added better search insight tools last month.
Those new abilities are aimed at helping creators figure out what user searches across all of YouTube can tell them about what new videos audiences are interested in. Searches can now cover all data from the past 28 days in English-speaking search terms from the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and India.
Since YouTube’s the biggest social media platform in the US by far — 2021 research data shows 81% of US adults say they use it, compared to the paltry 23% that say they ever used Twitter — businesses everywhere are interested in marketing on it.
And, with changes that open up YouTube to those with worse data connectivity, the platform is seeing a larger audience than ever. Check out our social media management tool recommendations to figure out how your business may be able to reach it’s audience of billions.
