On Thursday, video streaming service, YouTube introduced a service called ‘Smart Offline’ mode which allows the users to schedule the downloads in order to incur less data costs. For example, now you can schedule night time downloads for lesser data rates that are offered by mobile internet service providers in India.
“Today, we are beginning to roll out a feature called Smart Offline on YouTube that lets you take advantage of these cheaper data rates as offered by your mobile operator, without requiring you to stay up late at night,” the company wrote on its blog.
So, now, when you tap the go offline video option, you will get a prompt with the option of “save overnight”, which will then use the mobile operator’s discounted night data plan.
The YouTube app will then smartly schedule the download for a time when the peak hours are over and the costs are less. The video will be then available to watch without buffering the next morning, according to the company statement.
As of now, the feature has been released only for the Airtel and Telenor users in India with the company promising support for other network providers in the near future.
This feature will not work on Wi-Fi and you will need to download the latest update for the application to get the functionality.
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