YouTube Go will be closed in August. The move was officially confirmed in a post on Google’s support page. The search giant has recommended that YouTube Go users switch to the main YouTube app. They can also use a web browser to directly access the website. The YouTube Go app was released in 2016 for users with inexpensive hardware or poor data connectivity. The Go version also lacks a few key features, such as “the ability to comment, post, create content, and use a dark theme.”
According to a post shared by Google, the core YouTube has been optimized over the years to provide improved performance on entry-level smartphones and slow network connections. The company also promised that future updates will reduce the use of data for users who only have access to limited data. All of these improvements and planned updates to the main app have made the YouTube Go app redundant. In addition, the capabilities of low-cost smartphones have improved significantly since 2016, when this application was first launched. Recall that the application was created from scratch specifically for India, but was also available in other emerging markets.
The YouTube Go app currently has over 500 million installs on the Google Play store. Notably, the app hasn’t received any new updates since October 2021, which may indicate that this app has been in the background for a while.
Google is constantly releasing updates and adding new features to the YouTube app. Recently, it has widely released Super Thank, which allows users to tip content creators while watching their videos. This feature allows content creators to reduce their reliance on ads. In addition, a recent report suggested that YouTube will get a dedicated podcast homepage. This update is also rumoured to add audio ads to the platform.