YouTube for iPhone
Editors' Review
by
Joshua Rotter
/ January 10, 2018
The official iPhone app for YouTube is your defacto source for piles of user-generated streaming video, and it's easy to get around, but you may have to wade through some clickbait to find the good stuff.
Pros
A wide breadth of content: YouTube offers a variety of programming, from music videos to game walkthroughs to news to TV and movies. You can also catch videos from YouTube celebrities, such as Tyler Oakley and PewDiePie.
Like, comment, and share: You don't have to be a passive consumer on YouTube, when the app enables you to show your appreciation or distaste for its offerings. Like, post a comment, and share to your heart's content.
Casting: Don't want to watch your video on the small screen? Cast it to a larger one like a display monitor or TV (using Chromecast or another streaming device).
Content creation: YouTube makes it easy for anyone to create and upload videos. The YouTube Live feature allows for live streaming.
Easy to navigate: For such a robust app, YouTube is easy to get around. The Home button on the bottom rail offers video recommendations based on your previous activity. Tap Trending to quickly scroll all the hottest videos, or tap a filter like Music, Live, Gaming, and News, or a host of trending topics to narrow down your search by category. The Subscriptions section shows you all the creators you follow in one place. Library maintains all the videos you've watched, uploaded, purchased, and saved for later viewing. Here, you can also view your video playlists and liked videos.
YouTube Red: Subscribe to YouTube Red within the YouTube app to remove ads, legally download content for offline use, keep YouTube playing in the background, and watch exclusive original content. You can try YouTube Red for free for a month, and then it's $9.99 per month. Bonus: You get Google Play Music for free with your subscription. But if you already have a Google Play Music subscription, then you also already have a complementary YouTube Red subscription tacked on.
SEE: The Best Mobile Apps for Watching Video
Cons
Clickbait videos: YouTube's recommendation system has been struggling recently to filter out clickbait (low-quality videos with titles or images designed to trick you into clicking on them). It's sometimes difficult to find high-quality content, especially if the topic is trendy.
Bottom Line
YouTube for iPhone is a robust, feature-rich, and well-organized app for watching and creating videos.
