The ongoing drama between Microsoft and Google regarding having a dedicated YouTube application had a number of ups and downs as both companies at one point were working together to make the popular app available to Windows Phone users. Since then, we’ve seen the YouTube app make its way back onto the Windows Phone Store, to only be pulled by Google shortly after it was released. At this point, it looks like Microsoft has completely given up on having a dedicated application for YouTube as it has updated the app to revert back to its basic web player, which the company originally made available when the Windows Phone platform launched.
The issue between both companies seems to fall on Google as they want Microsoft to build its dedicated YouTube application using HTML5, which seems to be a step down from the native code Google uses for its iOS and Android YouTube apps. Building a YouTube app in HTML5 would be difficult for Microsoft considering both YouTube’s APIs and Windows Phone have their own restrictions that stand in the way of making a dedicated app a reality. Today’s update is better than nothing though as Windows Phone users will be able to access YouTube in one way or another from now on.
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