YouTube is testing out a smart downloads feature for its Android app
One of the features of YouTube Music for those who are subscribed is called Smart Downloads. Basically what this does is that it takes songs that you listen to often, or songs that you’ve liked, and downloads them to your device so that you can listen to it on the go without an internet connection.
It now looks like YouTube is bringing that feature over to the regular version of its Android app. According to a report from 9to5Google, it seems that YouTube is testing out smart downloads for its Android app where it will automatically download videos onto your phone when you’re connected to a WiFi network.
This feature will download 20 videos per week so that if you happen to be somewhere without an internet connection, you don’t have to worry as you can watch those videos to keep yourself entertained. Presumably this will be based on the same algorithms that YouTube Music uses, so hopefully it will be smart about choosing what videos to download so you don’t end up with a bunch of videos you don’t want to watch or have seen already.
Keep in mind that this will require users to be a YouTube Premium subscriber since downloading and watching videos offline is one of the perks of the service. At the moment, the feature has only been enabled for some users over in Europe, so if you don’t see it available to you yet, you’re not alone.
Source: 9to5Google