YouTube: Offline Videos on Smartphones and Tablets Incoming

It seems that in the not-too-distant future, YouTube could become even more accessible. Apparently, a small but appreciable revolution in the use of this medium is underway, with an inédit arrival on mobile devices. A project is in progress aiming to give users the ability to download YouTube videos to their smartphones or tablets, allowing them to watch them later, even without a connection. On the official YouTube blog, it’s announced that starting from November 2013, it will be possible to test this feature, exclusively through the official YouTube app. The exact functioning of this mechanism is not yet clear, especially as it’s mentioned that there will be a short viewing period, a limited phase that must pass between the download and offline viewing availability. It would seem, therefore, that videos obtained this way on smartphones and tablets will not be available indefinitely, but the reference timeline has not yet been revealed.

Neither is the method by which the video is “deactivated” once it “expires” known. While waiting to learn more, it’s clear that this new feature will benefit those who wish to watch videos on their device without draining their data connection while on the go. However, the development team will need to consider how to prevent the same videos from being “stored” regardless, perhaps by exploiting other apps. This would represent a violation of YouTube’s terms of service: the change, while feasible, is now also being studied from this perspective.