YouTube TV will soon let you download shows to view offline
If you have subscribed to YouTube and/or YouTube Music, you know you can download content that you can watch or listen to later on when you don’t have an Internet connection. But that functionality seems to have missed YouTube TV, with all of its library of TV shows. Well now it looks like they may be bringing this feature there as well which will finally let you download media for offline access. The latest update will generate a system notification and look for incomplete downloads although the functionality doesn’t seem to be live just yet.
According to 9 to 5 Google, updating to version 5.06.2 of YouTube TV will give you a notification saying “Looking for incomplete downloads” which is similar to what YouTube and YouTube Music gets. But there doesn’t seem to be a download functionality just yet but strings in the app have indicated that it is indeed coming to YouTube TV. When you don’t have internet connection, you’ll be referred to a downloads page where you will see everything that you’ve stored offline.
Just like other offline viewing features in other apps, you will most likely get restrictions like how long it will be available to access offline. It’s not clear though if all content will be available for download. Apps like Netflix sometimes have restrictions on which content can be downloaded and viewed offline so since we’re dealing with mostly licensed TV shows on YouTube TV, that may also apply here.
How it will work will probably be similar to YouTube and YouTube Music. When you’re viewing a piece of content and it’s “eligible”, you will see a download button there. You’ll also probably see a downloads section on the YouTube TV app where all the items that you are planning to view offline will be there. You will be able to access it not just when you don’t have Internet connection but when you’re trying to save on your data.
YouTube TV version 5.06.2 is now rolling out to users so you can update to the latest version. However we don’t know when the download functionality will be activated so you just have to wait a little longer.
