Imagine trying to watch the new trailer for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge — the longest running Bollywood love story with over 20 years in the box office — but the video buffers every five seconds. Or imagine only being able to watch the first minute of it, before stepping out of the WiFi zone at the mall.

Asia has proven itself to be a mobile-first world in terms of smartphone adoption, but access to high-speed, affordable data remains a big challenge. In response, we’ve been working on ways to lessen the demands of speed and data for people using our products in places where there are challenges to access.

Today we’re releasing a new offline feature within the YouTube app, in India, Indonesia and the Philippines. This feature lets you take videos offline to watch later during short periods of low or no internet connectivity. For videos where this feature is available, you can choose to add the video for offline viewing by tapping on the offline icon. Once taken offline, videos can be played back without an Internet connection for up to 48 hours, so you can enjoy YouTube videos without worrying about slow connections.


[Image] Starting today, much of popular YouTube content in India, Indonesia and the Philippines is available for people to view offline, from Hindi movies to local comedy and unboxings. Making these popular videos available for offline playback will help people move past the challenges of data connection, speed and cost to enjoy a smooth, buffer-free version of their favorite content.

YouTube offline is just a start. We hope to keep finding better ways to make video content more affordable and accessible to our growing base of YouTube mobile users in the region.

Posted by Jay Akkad, Product Manager, YouTube who recently watched “Nanga Punga Dost' VIDEO Song | PK | Aamir Khan | Anushka Sharma | T-series” offline