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Is YouTube deliberately crippling their app on Atv

rikscha said:
this is very much hit and miss and results in sometimes having no sound at all, forcing me to quit the app and restart it.
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It’s not free per se. You are ‘paying’ for the content by watching ads. Regardless, you can expect a well working app from a tech giant. Full stop. I get your point if it was a smaller player but google knows how to develop software.
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Oh god, please. It’s free AF, full stop. I don’t pay a dime and watch hours a week.

You wanna talk Netflix and their annoying crap I pay for? That’s one thing. Enjoy YouTube, probably the most useful site on the internet.
 
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Edd70 said:
Oh god, please. It’s free AF, full stop. I don’t pay a dime and watch hours a week.

You wanna talk Netflix and their annoying crap I pay for? That’s one thing. Enjoy YouTube, probably the most useful site on the internet.
Click to expand...

It’s not free though and save
Your hostility for someone else please
Netflix is equally bad and annoys on a similar level and yes, even more annoying as I’m paying for it directly rather than indirectly.

google has all the means to provide a good app that they are making money off big time.
 
I think it's less about deliberately crippling and more about not caring. Google and Apple are competitors, neither is going to try very hard to support the other's services.
 
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Hopefully WWDC will address this issue between Apple and Google with a new tvOS.

They both really feed off one another and stand to make more money when working together. But unfortunately sometimes egos get in the way.
 
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My only complaint with YouTube on my ATV HD (the only device I ever browse YouTube on) is the Siri remote occasionally loses the ability to scroll (iPhone remote not affected). Other than a reboot, I haven’t found another fix.
 
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Does anyone have an issue where the titles of videos overlay on top of each other? Only fix I know is to force quit but then reoccurs after short period of time.
 
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JBaby said:
I wouldn’t say it’s on purpose exactly but they haven’t done anything to improve it in years. I have to reconnect to HomePods whenever tv goes to sleep.
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I have to reconnect, too, but it's in all my apps, not just Youtube. Sometimes I have to go to settings and reconnect it that way.
 
Chazz08 said:
I have to reconnect, too, but it's in all my apps, not just Youtube. Sometimes I have to go to settings and reconnect it that way.
Click to expand...

As long as I don’t do anything with the HomePods that would cause it to disconnect, such as make a call, they won’t disconnect.
 
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AshleyHredone said:
I find the YouTube streaming quality far worse via the ATV than the LG OLED built in app.
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Google uses VP9 for the high end to save storage and bandwidth. Apple uses h265 and won't allow VP9 even though the hardware has acceleration for it.

It won't change until AV1 becomes the standard, which both seem to be backing.
 
I just checked and the YouTube app on the Apple TV is identical to that on my almost 7 year old smart TV. Very annoying.
 
CharlesShaw said:
My only complaint with YouTube on my ATV HD (the only device I ever browse YouTube on) is the Siri remote occasionally loses the ability to scroll (iPhone remote not affected). Other than a reboot, I haven’t found another fix.
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I find force quitting the Youtube app fixes this for me, fwiw. Wasn't sure if you meant you were doing a full reboot of the ATV itself.
 
DaveOP said:
I find force quitting the Youtube app fixes this for me, fwiw. Wasn't sure if you meant you were doing a full reboot of the ATV itself.
Click to expand...

oh wow. I can't believe I didn't know that the apps could be forced to quit. I'm glad I mentioned this. Thanks! 😃
 
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HDFan said:
I just checked and the YouTube app on the Apple TV is identical to that on my almost 7 year old smart TV. Very annoying.
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My LG HD TV is a 2012 and it's not smart at all so ATV HD does a good job at everything but YouTube app is just horrible compared to let's say Apple+ or any other app. I bought my first HD TV in 2010, a Sony EX710 semi-smart that had YouTube and Netflix. In 2011, YouTube app stopped working cause had to be upgraded but It could not because the Sony was already too "old" Google sait at the time. The Netflix app on the 2010 Sony does the job in 2020. So I came to the conclusion: as always, Google is doing a lousy job with its apps. I make a point to never install a Google app on my iPhone and iPad and guess what, it's perfectly livable. YouTube, watch it in Safari.
 
rikscha said:
I’m about to delete YouTube from my atv as the amount of frustration it causes is reaching its limits.
They deliberately go against Apple’s design guidelines (why can’t I change the audio source within the app?)
and the overall navigating experience hasn’t been designed with the atv in mind. It just feels alien on my atv.

I’m using a HomePod stereo setup and sure enough YouTube is not working with airplay homepods. You have to go out of
The app and switch around inputs to make this work and next time you go back, you have to do the same thing again.
Navigating around often results in missing the menu or button you want to hit or in accidentally fast forwarding the content when you just try to get more information about the video you are watching.
The app hangs itself up occasionally or will just play sound even after leaving the app.
It’s a joke in my opinion and simply airplaying YouTube from your phone is the better experience.

Keen to hear other experiences.
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Short answer. YES!
By doing the absolute minimum to say they have an app on ATV.
 
Yes its a tactic used by companies to give a rather less pleasant experience on other platforms. Do they do it on purpose, or because they only care that their own platform is best? I don't know. I heard YouTube works best on Chrome browser.
 
MacBH928 said:
Yes its a tactic used by companies to give a rather less pleasant experience on other platforms. Do they do it on purpose, or because they only care that their own platform is best? I don't know. I heard YouTube works best on Chrome browser.
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it caused further frustration earlier.
Open a playlist of a channel: it will immediately start playing the first episode not allowing you to browse the playlist. It is so annoying incredible. Do they believe that consumers think that the experience is better on other platforms and therefore ditch atv? Idiotic

another one, try logging in with a password.

laughable. Will your password manager pop up on your phone for easy password entering, no
Can you actually use the iphone remote app to type the password? No

it seriously makes me use the entire platform less as i dont like using something that is deliberately trying to annoy me
 
rikscha said:
it caused further frustration earlier.
Open a playlist of a channel: it will immediately start playing the first episode not allowing you to browse the playlist. It is so annoying incredible. Do they believe that consumers think that the experience is better on other platforms and therefore ditch atv? Idiotic

another one, try logging in with a password.

laughable. Will your password manager pop up on your phone for easy password entering, no
Can you actually use the iphone remote app to type the password? No

it seriously makes me use the entire platform less as i dont like using something that is deliberately trying to annoy me
Click to expand...

You are not wrong but I think the general idea is to implement this thought in the user's mind "ATV sucks for YouTube, I must buy another device to watch YouTube". On Google Chromecast "YouTube is flawless here, Chromecast and Google are the best products out there".

Seems to work on most people.
 
MacBH928 said:
You are not wrong but I think the general idea is to implement this thought in the user's mind "ATV sucks for YouTube, I must buy another device to watch YouTube". On Google Chromecast "YouTube is flawless here, Chromecast and Google are the best products out there".

Seems to work on most people.
Click to expand...

following Apple’s beliefs, where everything should start with the user experience, Google’s approach here is quite the opposite and I tend to agree with Apple on that one.
Google is doing a very sloppy job and it does look like an Android ported version rather than a native atv app. If this is the android experience then no thank you
 
Edd70 said:
Oh god, please. It’s free AF, full stop. I don’t pay a dime and watch hours a week.

You wanna talk Netflix and their annoying crap I pay for? That’s one thing. Enjoy YouTube, probably the most useful site on the internet.
Click to expand...

I'm with you. Could it be better? Sure. Am I going to waste time complaining about how a big tech company should do better? No. I use it all the time, enjoy the content, and deal with the poor UI. If I had to deal with HomePods at the same time, it might be different. But I just use my HDMI tv output for sound to my Sonos system. Never have to fiddle with sound. And it is free.
 
rikscha said:
I’m about to delete YouTube from my atv as the amount of frustration it causes is reaching its limits.
They deliberately go against Apple’s design guidelines (why can’t I change the audio source within the app?)
and the overall navigating experience hasn’t been designed with the atv in mind. It just feels alien on my atv.

I’m using a HomePod stereo setup and sure enough YouTube is not working with airplay homepods. You have to go out of
The app and switch around inputs to make this work and next time you go back, you have to do the same thing again.
Navigating around often results in missing the menu or button you want to hit or in accidentally fast forwarding the content when you just try to get more information about the video you are watching.
The app hangs itself up occasionally or will just play sound even after leaving the app.
It’s a joke in my opinion and simply airplaying YouTube from your phone is the better experience.

Keen to hear other experiences.
Click to expand...
The Netflix app is also worthless.
 
rikscha said:
following Apple’s beliefs, where everything should start with the user experience, Google’s approach here is quite the opposite and I tend to agree with Apple on that one.
Google is doing a very sloppy job and it does look like an Android ported version rather than a native atv app. If this is the android experience then no thank you
Click to expand...

you are not wrong, but if I had the choice between YouTube and AppleTV? I would pick YouTube and ditch AppleTV.
 
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