Google will retire YouTube Go next August

YouTube Go is an app that Google launched a few years ago with the intention of filling a void that was much more widespread at the time: Android phones with low-end hardware in emerging markets with limited connectivity and data rates that were out of reach for the majority of the people.

But much has changed since that now distant 2016, and YouTube Go appears to have completed its cycle, according to the Internet giant in a farewell piece in which it sets the final goodbye to the application for next August, in just three months. It can be used till then, but it will not download normally.

"When we introduced YouTube Go in 2016, it was created for viewers in locations where connectivity, data prices, and low-end devices prevented us from providing the greatest experience on the main YouTube app," the business notes. "Since then, we've invested in changes to the main YouTube app that increase its performance in these contexts while also giving a better user experience."

In essence, they claim that they have improved the performance of the standard application to provide better performance on input terminals or slower networks, as well as working on improving control tools to reduce the use of mobile data, so YouTube Go is no longer required in the scenarios for which it was designed.

It should be noted that YouTube Go did not consume less for no reason, but rather for removing content producer features from the app, such as recording and uploading videos and even commenting on other people's videos. Features have been desired by many YouTube Go users for a long time but have never been incorporated into the app for obvious reasons.

YouTube Go, whose most recent update was in October of last year, did not even include the popular dark theme. But that doesn't matter for now since, after more than 500 million downloads in six years, YouTube Go will be removed from the app store in August, leaving the normal YouTube app as the default option.

In reality, Google encourages YouTube Go customers to go straight to YouTube, or at the very least access the service on its website with a suitable web browser. Nothing has been announced about whether YouTube Go will continue to work on the devices on which it is installed, though it would seem plausible, at least for the time being.