YouTube: No Buffering Break

The video streaming platform's new offline feature lets users watch videos in low connectivity or no internet connection.

In a bid to make video content more affordable and accessible to the large base of mobile internet users, YouTube has launched an offline feature. It lessens the burden of data for its growing base of mobile users. This is part of YouTube's first release of its ad-supported offline feature on Android and iOS, which was announced earlier this year with the launch of Android One smartphones.

The new offline feature for the YouTube app lets people take videos offline, using WiFi or their data plans. Once taken offline, the videos can be viewed without an internet connection for up to 48 hours. For videos where this feature is available, people can choose to add the video for offline viewing by tapping on the offline icon that sits under the video frame.

John Harding, vice president of engineering, YouTube, says, "In a country like India, the future of the internet is mobile. 85 per cent of the internet population will connect to the Internet with a mobile phone before any other device. Already, we're 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."

Currently, much of YouTube's content is ready for people to view offline.

"We are delighted to launch this new offline experience on YouTube with some of India's household names for entertainment and music, including T-Series, Saregama and Yashraj Films. This new feature will also help our partners bring more viewers to their content and find even greater success on our platform," states Ajay Vidyasagar, regional director of YouTube Partnerships, YouTube Asia-Pacific.

Earlier this year, YouTube worked with Tata DoCoMo to introduce "YouTube Recharge," a new video data add-on for prepaid users that gave them more affordable access to YouTube on their mobiles devices.

YouTube, LLC is based in San Bruno, Calif., and is a subsidiary of Google Inc. Touted as world's popular online video community, the platform allows millions of users to discover, watch and share originally created videos.