YouTube Gets Smart Offline Feature In India For Cheaper Downloads

The ability to watch YouTube videos offline is one of the most frequently requested features, Google introduced YouTube Offline a couple of years ago for a handful of markets and today it’s further improving that feature for users in India. Google today announced the launch of a feature called Smart Offline for YouTube users in India. The feature will enable users to take advantage of cheaper data rates when downloading videos on a cellular connection.

Many carriers already offer customers in India discounted data and promotions for the internet during off-peak hours but it’s not always possible for all users to stay up that late every night just to take advantage of the cheaper data rates.

This is where Smart Offline comes in. The feature is going to enable users to take advantage of these cheaper data rates offered by mobile operators without having to stay up late at night.

The procedure to save a video for offline viewing is still the same, however now users will also see an option to “Save overnight,” once this option is selected it will automatically schedule the video download to start in off-peak hours.

When users wake up in the morning they will find their videos ready to watch offline, with no buffering. Smart Offline is gradually rolling out to Telenor and Airtel subscribers today and Google is going to bring it to all users in India eventually. The Smart Offline feature will only appear when connected via a cellular network, it won’t appear if the device is connected to Wi-Fi.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Google, YouTube