An updated YouTube app recently arrived in the Play Store. This update was on the smaller side and included a few improvements as well as some bug fixes. But along with the details of what has been added and/or improved this time around, it looks like the APK file for the app is holding some secrets in terms of what may be coming with future updates.
These secrets were discovered by Android Police when they performed a teardown on the current APK file. One of the main items discovered was in regards to something called Music Pass, which is believed to be a subscription service. This isn’t the first time we have seen details along these lines, however this time around we are seeing some additional details.
Some of the points discovered in the APK touched on offline playback, background listening and uninterrupted music. The offline playback appears to be just as the name would imply — being able to cache content on your device for times when a connection may not be available. One example would be when flying. It doesn’t appear as if these offline videos will be available for ever though. There was mention of the offline version being expired.
In addition, a video can’t be watched offline comment was also discovered, which suggests that offline availability will vary from video to video. It also appears as if there are different options including some dealing with the video quality, the amount of storage being used and whether to only download using WiFi. Otherwise, the uninterrupted part was also connected with a comment about there being no ads on millions of songs.
Similar to not every video being available for offline use, it would appear as if not everything will be available without advertisements being attached. That all being said, this is clearly just some basic details and we obviously still need more (and official) information from Google, however it does look like things are shaping up for a YouTube subscription service to arrive in the not to distant future.
This update fixed YouTube on my Vzw S3. The previous update caused my screen to go dim with white box in the middle of the screen. I think this was a TV pair mode. I have never paired to any TV or Google TV.