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Removal of Built-in YouTube App in iOS 6 Was YouTube's Decision to 'Take Back Control of Our App'

It's mostly been for the better... but then again sometimes we get things like the horrible UI from last year where there was no back or library button and you had to swipe 50 times to get to the menu through the videos you'd watched.
 
kdarling said:
Google also wanted to offer their Latitudes service where you could track friends and family, but Apple was about to put the same thing in iOS, and as we all know, Apple does not allow duplication of their features.
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Apple allows duplication all the time. They probably just wanted to get ahead of Google integrating GPS tracking into iOS at a core level and all the privacy concerns that arise from that. Smart move if that's the case.
 
Google / YouTube needs to allow for background playback and picture-in-picture without requiring subscription to YouTube RED. Why should such features require a subscription? Not to mention that RED is only available in a few countries so I'm not even able to pay for it even if I wanted to...
 
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zorinlynx said:
It's still missing one HUGE feature, and that is PiP support on iPad. With other video playing apps you can exit the app and keep watching the video in a window. YouTube purposefully blocked that for some reason.
Click to expand...
Download an awesome free app for macos and ios called "PiPifier" then enable it in your share sheet in safari.
Thank me later😉
 
Now days, they're "taking back control" by not allowing YouTube videos to play in the background, or with the screen off, on iOS devices. SO ANNOYING.
 
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The self-contained YouTube app is far better to me. However, I get tired of Safari links automatically taking me out of Safari and into an app (YouTube, Amazon, eBay, etc.). There needs to be some sort of simple method to prevent this... I'd rather have an optional, translucent button that allows me an easy option to leave Safari for the app, instead of jumping through hoops to open a YouTube link in Safari. Sometimes I search for an item on Amazon, and I'm yanked out of Safari into the app. Then I search for a YouTube review and am yanked out of Safari again. Maybe I want a safari tab with Amazon items and a tab with YouTube vids without double-clicking the home button to multi-task, when everything I need is already right there?

I do agree YouTube needs a background feature. A mixed bag, but overall a better app in my opinion.
 
$1 Billion for default search rights? 😱 Kind of puts into perspective how much tracking your search history is worth to them.

I don't think they make much if any money from me. I don't use any of their services except YouTube through Safari without logging in and with content blocking enabled to control ads. It works pretty well.

I frequently reset my advertising tracking ID also. I wish Apple could make that function automatic.
 
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xfusejc said:
That's so you can get YouTube RED and get that feature. They held it back so you'd subscribe and pay for it.
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And they also keep you from playing audio in the background unless you subscribe to Red. I totally understand having ads on a free account, but locking basic functionality behind a paywall is ridiculous. Still, as others have said, the app is very well designed so it's still a joy to use.

RickInHouston said:
Remember kids, 'Google is bad apple is good!'
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This is rich, coming from the guy that literally does nothing but trash Apple.
 
Yeah and look where that has gotten us...an app where there is no PiP video, and charges you for background audio...things every other app does for free.
 
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LordQ said:
They also blocked background playback even in Safari. ):
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I'm watching a YouTube video, displaying it PIP, while sitting in the iOS Settings app (could be anywhere, that's just what I tapped), right now. In Safari I've got YouTube set to load the "desktop website" (presumably via a tiny link at the bottom of the page), don't know if that makes a difference.
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MrGuder said:
Why are we seeing so many established YouTube techies asking for donations in order to keep them a float? They say there losing revenues?
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YouTube did something (not sure exactly what) a while back, that I think blocked a lot of accounts from using their ad service. I've heard popular YouTuber's refer to "the great adpocalypse". So, lots of them are heavily pushing patreon (fine) or running a 3 minute inline testimonial for some advertiser, in the middle of their video (much more annoying).
 
The YouTube app until recently was pretty pointless. You could watch the videos in Safari anyway, plus you didn't get ads that way and could watch it in the background without the "picture in picture" workaround that most people don't know about.
 
Lol, I love his revisionists tale of how YouTube was suffering on iOS under the oppressive rule of Apple and so one day they said "enough is enough!" and gathered the courage to stand up to the big bad Apple monster by making the controversial & "gutsy" move to leave because they knew it would be better for the company.
That isn't what happened AT ALL!

The reality is that Google was simply holding back their apps/services on iOS to make android look better.
Steve Jobs had enough of that, so he kicked them out by removing YouTube & Google Maps from iOS. 🙄
 
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zorinlynx said:
It's still missing one HUGE feature, and that is PiP support on iPad. With other video playing apps you can exit the app and keep watching the video in a window. YouTube purposefully blocked that for some reason.
Click to expand...

The PiPifier app,
PiPifier - PiP for every web video by Arno Appenzeller
https://appsto.re/us/xYrMjb.i , allows you to do picture in picture for YouTube on safari through share sheets. Not through the app though, but it’s good 🙂
 

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Used to love Apple’s YouTube app. Still feel it was way better and more fun to use than YouTube’s current app. Was gutted when they got rid of it thinking it was because of their beef with Google so this is interesting.
 
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