14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to YouTube’s app for Android, it’s surely been lacking some essential features that are found in the web-based version. Now, it seems that Google has taken this into consideration and is working on bringing those options to Android-running devices.
XDA Developers has reported that YouTube app for Android will soon get more search options and allow users to filter results by rating, relevance, and view count.
The new search options were pulled from strings found in the latest YouTube app update, version 11.20.54. However, the filters don’t seem to be available in the application yet, so it’s unclear when they will be arriving to the YouTube app.
XDA Developers dug into the APK file of the new YouTube version and discovered that the application might offer users the option to find videos faster. However, Google may choose to pull the new features at any point, especially since there’s no official word on these new options.
The desktop version of YouTube comes with an abundance of filters for narrowing down search results and finding videos fast. However, the Android app only allows users to filter content by date, duration, type or quality, which clearly isn’t enough.
More than half of YouTube videos are streamed on mobile devices
One reason why Google decided to bring more filters to the YouTube app on Android regards the fact that more than half of all videos viewed on the platform are streamed on mobile devices. The new option should allow users to find videos faster and thus spend more time in the service.
Earlier this month, YouTube started testing a new “native sharing” feature in its mobile applications, one that allowed users to share videos faster and post comments in a private conversation.
The new feature would let everyone chat inside the YouTube mobile app and create large groups of users, thus turning YouTube into an instant messaging service.