YouTube has received an update today, complimenting the slew of other Google apps we’ve seen rolling in new or changed. This one is the biggest update for the service in some time, as it now allows for live channels to be casted to a Chromecast device. There were other changes as well, like an alteration to the playlist and comments system.
The smaller changes affect better comment controls, wherein you can now see if your comment was public of private, and we now have the ability to delete a comment from within the app. Improved video quality for Android 4.2 and u rolls in, as does the “liked and personal” playlists being cobbled into the left-side menu.
The Chromecasting of live TV is the real attention grabber, here. Though YouTube is limited in how many live channels it has — or are worth watching — this is a move that likely has long-term implications. YouTube still needs better channel discovery should this be a feature moving forward, but casting has come to live YouTube videos now.
If you’ve not seen the update yet, feel free to check for it. We had to manually search the Play Store for the update — it didn’t push to any of our devices. It’s neat that we can cast live TV from YouTube, but finding live channels is tough, and there aren’t many good ones just yet.
