YouTube for Android

With YouTube, view and rate videos as well as create and share your own.

Pros

Recommendations and recent videos: To help you sort through a bajillion videos, YouTube shows you clips and mixes based on your viewing history and trending videos.

Subscribe to channels: Tap the red Subscribe button to have a channel show up in your subscription feed. New videos published to the channel will appear in your feed.

Build playlists: While a video is playing, you can tap the Add to button to create a playlist and add the video to it. You can name the playlist and decide whether to keep it private.

Mixes: Search for an artist or play a song, and YouTube can assemble an endless mix of songs from the artist. If you like the mix, tap the Add to button to create a playlist and listen to it later.

Stream to a TV: Tap the overflow menu (the three vertical dots in the top-right) and tap Watch on TV to set up and then stream video to your TV.

Upload your own videos: To create or share your own videos, tap the red camera circle in the bottom-right corner of your home screen, then record a video or pick one from your library to upload to YouTube. The app offers simple filters for adjusting the look of your video and music clips so you can add a soundtrack.

Companion services: Google offers a constellation of related YouTube services. YouTube Music is a dedicated music app for listening to songs and music videos. YouTube Red is an ad-free subscription version of YouTube. YouTube TV is Google's over-the-top subscription TV service. YouTube Gaming presents gaming videos and live streams. And YouTube Kids presents a curated selection of videos with a simplified controls.

SEE: The Best Mobile Apps for Watching Video

Cons

Overlapping apps: Google's various media apps have competing services, making it challenging to decide which is the better choice for your needs. Through both Google Play Video and YouTube you can rent or buy movies, for example, and Google Play Music and YouTube Music both offer playlists and radio-like stations.

Bottom Line

YouTube lets you discover, view, and share user-created videos. The Android app packs in everything good about YouTube but overlaps at times with other Google services.

The current version may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.