Mumbai: YouTube, the most popular online video channel on Thursday announced the launch of a buffer-free offline video feature, which will make it easier for YouTube users to enjoy their preferred videos on mobile devices.The new offline feature for the YouTube application lets people take video’s offline, using WiFi or their data plans.
Once taken, offline, the video, can be viewed without an internet connection for up to 48 hours, allowing people to enjoy YouTube videos without worrying about slow connections. For videos, where this feature is available, people can choose to add the video for offline viewing by tapping on the offline icon that is displayed under the video frame.According to Google, there are 10,000 Indian movies, 20,000 television shows and 2.5 lakh songs on YouTube. On the other hand, there are 60 million YouTube users in India.
The internet users in India are set to cross 300 million by the end of this month. Out of this, about 180-190 million users are expected to access internet via mobile devices.“In a country like India, the future of Internet is mobile. About 85 per cent of the internet population will connect to the internet with a mobile phone before any other device”.“Already, we are seeing over 40 per cent of our traffic in India come from mobile devices and we want to make sure we are making YouTube as enjoyable as possible for these mobile first users.
By launching this offline experience, we hope to help people move past the challenges of data connection, speed and cost to enjoy a smooth buffer free version of YouTube,” said John Harding, vice president of engineering at YouTube.
