War? YouTube app disappears from iOS 6 beta 4 as Apple breaks Google ties

http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/06/war-youtube-app-disappears-from-ios-6-beta-4/

by Empro • 14 years ago

79 69 14 years ago

Empro• 14 years ago

I don't think this has anything to do with Apple killing Google Maps. In that case, Apple could build an alternative relatively easily (acquisition and so on). In this case, noone has an alternative to YouTube. If this is Apple sticking it to Google again, I'll be very surprised.

Edit: Apple has issued a statement (http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/6/3223775/apple-youtube-ios6)

"Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store."

Terretta• 14 years ago

YouTube mobile site works better. Many videos won't play in the app (publisher hasn't authorized this video for mobile viewing) that will play in the mobile site. And pretty much all videos play if you select the "Desktop" link at the foot of the mobile site.

So, as commenters on that article said, use Parental Restrictions to forbid YouTube app and enjoy it in Safari directly.

ctdonath2• 14 years ago

Google may very well want more control over its YouTube app, including the ability to update it at will (normal AppStore processing aside), and Apple may be pleased to relinquish responsibility.

The YouTube app seemed necessary to jumpstarting iOS interest in users way back when ... which is way back when now, and the need for bundling is past.

Not war. Maturity.

ahi• 14 years ago

I got my first iOS device only 2 months ago and didn't really get why there was a YouTube app. Seemed like a generic corporate tie up.

masklinn• 14 years ago

> [I] didn't really get why there was a YouTube app

Because back in 2007 there was no such thin as "HTML5 video", and youtube was already the most popular video site by a pretty long shot. So they built that one in via a dedicated application.

shinratdr7• 14 years ago

Hardly, it's just that in 2007 YouTube and online video were basically synonymous. You didn't really have one without the other.

objclxt• 14 years ago

Apple gave a statement to The Verge, which basically says their licence from Google expired: "our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended".

I know Google are hiring iOS software engineers for YouTube right now in London, so I'm sure there will be some official native offering appearing in the future.

siglesias2• 14 years ago

Of course one would imagine that the date of expiration was known at the time they announced iOS 6 with YouTube in it.

smackfu4• 14 years ago

Or more likely, "we chose not to renew our license".

TazeTSchnitzel• 14 years ago

Yeah. I always hated the built-in YouTube app. Being made by Apple, it was infrequently updated (only with iOS version changes), and it didn't let you do everything the mobile site did. It's good to see Google are finally in control.

kurtvarner• 14 years ago

Here's an even better explanation http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/08/06/why-is-apple-ditching...

zbowling• 14 years ago

I don't care about the YouTube app as long as embedded flash youtube videos are still redirected to the embedded plugin.

In Mountain Lion, there is now a share button that goes to Vimeo but there is no YouTube option. This equals the playing field a little for other video companies.

cicloid• 14 years ago

Probably the best move for all parties involved.

The Youtube mobile site has better and more complete functionality. But that was completely missing on the native app.

Unless you didn't use suscriptions, check comments, etc. The native app, worked perfectly.

ahsteele• 14 years ago

I wonder if this is going to muck up the ability to post a video to YouTube natively from the OS. Meaning that rather than posting from the photo / video viewer you will now have to open the YouTube app to post.

jonknee2• 14 years ago

About time, I have always stashed that in an unused folder. It's a nearly useless app that can't be deleted, so it's in the unused folder along with Stocks, Compass, iTunes, and Game Center. Having the browser jump to the app just because you click on a link was very annoying, doubly so when the mobile site was just as functional.

Worst case the perfectly usable website will be there, but Google's YouTube app will likely be a lot better and have the ability to be updated.

zxoq• 14 years ago

I actually use it a lot for watching subscriptions.

However, it's in bad need of an update (it's ugly as sin). So I won't complain if Google releases a version on the App Store instead.

jonknee2• 14 years ago

Subscriptions work fine in the very nice mobile version of YouTube. Since switching to Chrome for iOS I have really enjoyed being able to use YouTube's website instead of getting forwarded to Apple's YouTube App.

alexpenny• 14 years ago

I like compass

wtracy• 14 years ago

It's now possible to play YouTube videos without Flash, so the dedicated app is no longer a necessity to watch YouTube videos on iOS. With that in mind, calling this "war" seems a bit over the top.

smackfu4• 14 years ago

Hopefully they don't delete it from Apple TV too.

ctdonath2• 14 years ago

Hopefully they WILL allow third-party Apple TV apps, and Google will provide a superior YouTube app.

smackfu4• 14 years ago

Yeah, to be honest, I'm not a super fan of the AppleTV Youtube app. The only way to find good content is to use subscriptions and those are hidden away on your account menu, and you need to select each one to find out if there are any new videos.

addlepate2• 14 years ago

On the iPad at least, I prefer using the desktop version of youtube.com. It works better than the app, and more videos seem to be available due to inane restrictions on "mobile" video viewing in the app and mobile web site.

sitharus• 14 years ago

I also do this on iPhone. It's just nicer, the app hasn't been updated for ages.

rrreese• 14 years ago

Interesting. As I understand it Google, realising the increased importance of mobile, developed Android to ensure that phone manufacturers would not be able to lock Google's services out, or provide and encourage alternative services. By making their own platform they can push their services to the forefront.

But in doing so they antagonized Apple with whom they had a good relationship, and now find their services being replaced or dropped (first maps and now YouTube, and iOS 6 and Mountain Lion not including Google sharing options).

Given that Google makes four times as much money from iOS then it does Android [1] I wonder if this was a good plan? If Apple replaced Google search with Bing as the default, it would have to hurt a lot. On the other hand if Apple did all this anyway but Google didn't have Android up its sleeve it would be in a much worse situation then it is now.

[1] http://gizmodo.com/5897457/google-makes-four-times-more-mone...

kkowalczyk• 14 years ago

You know what's worse for Google than "antagonizing" Apple?

Being at complete mercy of Apple.

Google has Android, which has a bigger market share than iOS. If Apple kicks out all Google's services from iOS, Google still has Android.

If Google didn't have Android and Apple kicked them out of iOS, they would have nothing.

This is a long term game for both players. Google's strategic plan is to advance Android. Apple's strategic plan is to advance iOS and don't be dependent of Google, which is why they are kicking out Google's maps and invest in their own solution, even though I'm certain it's way more costly for them to do it compared to licensing Google's service.

Both Google and Apple act perfectly reasonably given their long-term strategy.

Tyrannosaurs3• 14 years ago

Apple have always been very clear that they don't like being beholden to anyone when it comes to core products.

Google ran the risk of finding themselves in precisely that position with the advent of mobile devices.

As much as I'd rather Apple and Google - two of the most exciting companies out there - were getting on, I don't think anything Google is doing is that different to what Apple would do were the situation reversed.

riobard• 14 years ago

Google is also stabbed on its back by Android OEMs and carriers for replacing many Google services with 3rd-party alternatives. This is especially true in China (2nd largest market for Apple) where almost all Google apps have been replaced/eliminated by local Android brands due to censorship and blocking.

Economically the whole Android strategy doesn't make any sense to Google. From a user's perspective it would be much better if Google provides the backend service coupled with Apple's portable devices. Now we end up in this frustrating market with two options: 1) good services + mediocre devices, and 2) mediocre services + good devices.

Steko2• 14 years ago

Google has two big clear goals with their Android strategy:

(1) keep it's main product (Search) from being locked out (by MS/Apple/Facebook), set aside (made nondefault) or emasculated (ad blockers eventually). This is the main point of Chrome as well as G+ to some extent.

(2) minimize frictions that reduce searches. In the case of Android they give away the OS because if the OS costs more the phone costs more and fewer people switch to an internet phone. For Chrome the push for speed attacks the problem at a different angle - faster internet = happier customer = more searches per person.

There are other benefits and goals Google has with this -- yes they want to boost G+, yes they want to keep the data flowing and building, yes they have grand plans down the road -- but those are all secondary.

vidarh• 14 years ago

Android is a long play - keeping the mobile space open is far more important than short term revenue from Apple that could disappear at the whim of Apple, and which likely would have disappeared or diminished soon enough anyway if Apple was in an even more powerful position.

jpxxx• 14 years ago

I'd be happy to see the native Google Youtube app allow me to copy a video URL. It is extraordinarily difficult to make such a simple thing happen on iOS right now.

nostromo• 14 years ago

Good riddance, the YouTube app was terrible. (And that's from someone who regularly watches YouTube videos.)

Because of its insistance that I watch YouTube not in the browser but inside the app, it's the only default app I forcefully removed by turning it off in parental controls.

rogerchucker• 14 years ago

Did Apple somehow manage deliberately to restrict Youtube search results of songs to live performances in its Youtube app? I rarely get the music videos as first search results. If Google can get around that in its iOS youtube app, then I'll be a happy man...

zht• 14 years ago

VEVO videos are not available on mobile (except through the VEVO app)

CrazedGeek• 14 years ago

On Android, they do show up in the official YouTube app.

duaneb• 14 years ago

I'm sure Google will enable advertisements or DRM or whatever to get full content on their iOS app.

shinratdr7• 14 years ago

Not true. I just started "Katy Perry - Part of Me" (if anything will block you it'll be a high profile video like that) via Mobile Safari. Works fine, on both vevo.com and through youtube.com. You never leave MobileSafari, playback occurs entirely within the browser.

Apparently devs haven't been using their devices for much video playback. Most of the information on this page is a good six months out of date. VEVO and YouTube work just fine through the browser, and they have already devised a scheme to feed unskippable ads to iOS devices.

The industry is way ahead of the concerns on this page.

smackfu4• 14 years ago

This is just ContentID: http://www.youtube.com/t/contentid

The content owner gets to choose to block the video, or to share in the advertising. The Youtube app on iOS doesn't have advertising, so there is nothing to share in, so the videos end up blocked. The web site (and the future Google YouTube app) will surely have advertising, and so they'll have these vids.

Edit: This isn't just the actual VEVO music videos... it's also all the "songs with lyrics onscreen" videos that come up on a Youtube search for a song.

shinratdr7• 14 years ago

> The web site (and the future Google YouTube app) will surely have advertising

Already does. More evidence this was in the pipeline the entire time, Google has already devised a scheme to feed unskippable ads to devices that use their own player such as iOS.

You can experience it right now, just go to youtube.com in Mobile Safari and look for a music video. Most likely you'll get a pre-roll ad.

notatoad• 14 years ago

It's not apple. Lots of songs (especially VEVO stuff) are restricted on youtube to only play in a flash container. if you force youtube to only do HTML5 stuff, you get the same selection of stuff that's in the iPad YouTube app.

shinratdr7• 14 years ago

Not true. When was the last time anyone on this page actually used these services?

They solved this problem a while ago. Try it out. Grab your iOS device, search a VEVO video in MobileSafari. Assuming the owner didn't block all mobile playback, it'll play just fine, including a pre-roll ad that you can't skip.

The YouTube app for iOS devices only lists fully unprotected videos with no advertising or restrictions. However, MobileSafari has never had this restriction and has offered ad-supported YouTube videos via HTML5 for quite some time now.

mmahemoff• 14 years ago

That weird TV icon says it all about YouTube app.

Its makers parted ways and it was left unloved.

mmackh• 14 years ago

This is unfortunate news, since the Youtube app was the last place to consume my content without ads filling up the videos or even annotations popping up every few seconds to click to a different video. Youtube on the web is a whole different experience, and with Google trying to monazite this mobile market, I can't see Google's own app being a better experience.

rkudeshi• 14 years ago

This is actually a really GOOD development.

It means the current app, which was made by Apple for iOS 1 and barely updated, can now be replaced by a Google-made YouTube app available in the App Store.

The new app will presumably also support all of YouTube's new features since 2007, notably videos with ads (i.e. music videos).

Remember, the only reason the app was ever built-in is because the App Store didn't exist on the first iPhone. Separating it into the App Store will also make it easier to update regularly (see Apple's own iBooks app).

I wrote more about this in my wish list for iOS 6: http://raviudeshi.com/2012/06/ios-6

Tyrannosaurs3• 14 years ago

The other reason it was built in was at the time YouTube videos were all flash and it was too big a site for Apple to ignore.

shinratdr7• 14 years ago

That was the reason Apple offered it in the first place, it's not the reason it was built in and updated with the OS.

Macha2• 14 years ago

YouTube for Android doesn't support at least some videos with ads (vevo and what not), because the content owners specifically block it on mobile (maybe so they can push their own apps?), so don't get your hopes up too high.

notJim• 14 years ago

Yeah, this seems quite common with music videos.

conradev• 14 years ago

As a sidenote, there is a Rickroll in the latest iOS 6 beta release notes when discussing the YouTube changes.

erichocean• 14 years ago

If they want to really twist the knife, include the Vimeo app by default.

ChuckMcM• 14 years ago

next up mail.

If you read the text it was "our license was up."

Basically in the first iPhone Apple licensed a bunch of apps from Google to create the iPhone ecosystem, Maps, Mail, Search, video, and one other which I've forgotten. That was when they were friends, now they hate each other, so Apple has been building its own replacements. And I'm sure when the license renewal came up Apple took a harder stance.

Youtube and the mail client are pretty much the last things to go. That was part of the reason I was surprised Apple didn't pick up Sparrow. When Google got it I said "aha" this will be the Mail tool from Google that you can get in the App store when Apple dumps them off the phone.

brianwhitman• 14 years ago

I really don't think Google built Apple's Mail.app client. Do you have any link or information about this?

themckman• 14 years ago

I find it hard to believe that Google had/has anything to do with the Mail app in iOS. It seems awfully tied to Mail.app on the desktop which certainly has nothing to do with Google. I'm open to evidence suggesting otherwise.

RandallBrown• 14 years ago

Considering Mail supports plenty of other mail services that doesn't make any sense to me at all.

jbverschoor• 14 years ago

http://www.hyperswitching.com/post/28849912133/on-why-apple-... my posting about this :-)

noduerme• 14 years ago

Hehe. No Flash, no YouTube... sounds boring. Good to see the predictable fanboy response around here, just like when they declared war on Adobe.

Steko2• 14 years ago

Since we're all piling on the current YT app here's my all time favorite: your video ended, let's immediately cut to summary screen; oh you want to watch it again? It's still in memory but let me start buffering it again and randomly hang or crash. Back in the EDGE days, ehrmagahd/rageface/first world problems!1

paul9290• 14 years ago

Anyone else annoyed by this and their new iMap application?

Their iMap app does not translate well on the web like the previous Google Map app did. When I am on a website that has a map link, it no longer opens up the built in map app nor maps direction from my current location. Since Google Maps is used across the web, when I click on a link it now takes me to Google Maps in the browser. But, that doesn't automatically map directions for me nor do turn by turn navigation.

This change and a few others in iOS6 have degraded my iPhone user experience.

guelo2• 14 years ago

People here that are saying this isn't war are being silly. Apple's Google hatred is now being kicked into high-gear. The battle is in multiple fronts including court rooms world-wide as well as removing as much Google as they can from iOS and Mountain Lion.

The main thing I don't understand is why is Google not fighting back completely. Why would they make a YouTube app that makes the iOS platform more attractive? Why not block iOS devices from accesing Youtube altogether, as well as Gmail and even Search? Apple is dead set on trying to kill Android but Google isn't trying to kill iOS, it's weird.

praxulus• 14 years ago

Google doesn't want to kill iOS, they just want people using the web, and smartphones are a great way to get more people there. Android's purpose to get lots of people using smartphones, whether it's by using an android device, or by putting price pressure on iPhone.

guelo2• 14 years ago

The future of consumer computing is all mobile. Everyone realizes this. The companies that control the mobile platforms will be the biggest richest companies in the world over the next ten to twenty years. To think Google is only in the fight for its search revenues is to believe that Google is not thinking strategically long-term. In any case, if Apple ends up monopolizing the mobile platform there won't be any search revenue for Google.

War? YouTube app disappears from iOS 6 beta 4 as Apple breaks Google ties

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