YouTube Launches “Smart Offline” Feature in India to Schedule Video Downloads
As we know, Youtube is the biggest video streaming platform and it is frequently used by users to watch and upload videos. Previously we have seen YouTube launched its Offline feature in 2014 which helps users to save and watch videos later without acquiring data charges.
Following this, Youtube has now launched the new feature that is especially for Indian customers known as Smart Offline. This feature can download videos and lets you watch the saved videos. However, this sounds familiar with the old offline mode isn’t it? but it is completely different.
The new Smart Offline feature lets you download videos with an option to“Save overnight” while the user sleeps, the video will automatically get downloaded overnight and be ready for viewing later.
The new Smart offline feature will determine to be more than handy in India because telecom services in India provide cheaper data rates during night. Therefore, users can make full use of this feature to automatically download their videos in a night.
Google India Blog notes says- “Since we launched YouTube offline in 2014, we’ve seen you bid bye bye to the buffering wheel and take your favorite videos offline to enjoy in areas of low or no internet connectivity. Thanks to this popular feature, you’ve effectively saved money by watching your favorite videos many times over without a data connection.”
They also said- “Today, we’re beginning to roll out a feature called Smart Offline on YouTube that lets you takes advantage of these cheaper data rates as offered by your mobile operator, without requiring you to stay up late at night”
According to the company the new feature is only available to Airtel and Telenor subscribers, but they are working to bring it to all users in India soon.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
By and large, YouTube has traditionally required an internet connection to access videos, but because not all markets have ubiquitous mobile internet, Google has thrown some markets a bone by allowing offline access. Ad dollars are ad dollars at the end of the day, whether offline or online.
The Google-owned video-streaming giant first introduced offline mode for India, Indonesia, and the Philippines back in 2014 and later expanded it to cover more markets, including the Middle East.
In India, a number of mobile operators offer promotions and discounted data during off-peak hours — when bandwidth is at less of a premium. So now, when an Android user in India taps the button to push a video offline, they’ll be asked if they want to “Save Overnight.” If they agree, the YouTube app will schedule the video to be pushed offline during the off-peak nighttime hours when the user is asleep. It’s worth stressing here that this will only work when connected to a compatible mobile network — it won’t work over Wi-Fi.
This feature won’t be available to everyone in India yet, for now it will only be available to Airtel and Telenor subscribers, but YouTube say it hopes to introduce the feature nationwide “eventually.”
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