It has officially been confirmed by Google’s YouTube team that YouTube Go will be gone by August. The company has informed that it will adjourn with the alternative app which was set up for the main app. The main reason behind this step is that it became very unnecessary over the years.
According to the company, they had developed the Go app for users, who had connectivity issues, especially in geographies where mobile data prices were prohibitive and had low-end phones that couldn’t run the main app.
Unlike the main YouTube app, Go users do not have access to features such as commenting, posting, creating content or using a dark theme. YouTube Go was originally in only two countries — India and Indonesia before it moved out of the beta version in 2017 and was available widely. Soon in 2018, the company rolled out the app to over 130 countries so that more users could download the 10MB app.
The team also included that since the time Go was launched in 2016, YouTube has come up with several performance improvements to the main app. These improvements will help run the app more smoothly even on entry-level devices.
The team further added that they are working on new controls which will help in reducing people’s mobile data usage. Although it is still not clear when the new feature will be available.
Other than YouTube Go, Google had launched a series of Android apps under a “Go” family which specifically cater to phones that barely meet minimum requirements and users on very low-bandwidth networks. These include Maps Go, Gmail Go, and even Files Go. It’s unclear if those apps will also be off the app stores.