Youtube TV may be preparing to let you download and watch shows offline

Of all of Youtube’s offerings, Youtube TV is the only app that currently doesn’t let you download and watch content offline with a Premium subscription. According to 9to5Google, that’s all about to change. After opening the app post update (5.06.2), a notification in your status be will state that the app is “looking for incomplete downloads” before disappearing – something that Youtube and Youtube Music currently do when you resume usage.

While you can’t currently download and store TV shows locally within the app, a few code strings in this version of the app show clear signs of the capability being on its way. “You are offline”, “Go to downloads”, and “Watch your downloaded videos” are all phrases which were found buried in the app’s code.

Presumably, the familiar circle download button will appear at the corner of a show’s title while you’re watching it. I’m personally not sure why this is releasing now. With the lack of travel going on in today’s climate, this seems like it would be less useful than before everything occurred.

Maybe I’m just not seeing the full picture, but how many of you would download shows to watch in your home or at a coffee shop? Maybe it’s great for those who have spotty connections. Let me know in the comments section if I’m failing to consider something that’s glaringly obvious. Perhaps it was already in development and it was simply wrapped up and ready to go. Either way, any new features are good features, right?

Do keep in mind that downloading videos for offline usage will only be available in the Youtube TV Google Play app for now – not on the web. PWAs are either not yet capable of downloading streaming content, or it may be a licensing issue. We may one day see apps for services like this completely replaced by their web counterparts, but the ability to store content offline in a container from a website would first need to be properly developed and implemented.