YouTube PWA supports downloading videos for offline viewing

The YouTube PWA has been available since the beginning of this year and is a good example of a modern progressive web application, as you know a new generation of applications that take advantage of the main web technologies (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) to create interfaces for Internet services.

Unlike mobile or desktop applications, these PWAs can be run in any standards compliant browser (all major developments), as well as other benefits such as push notifications, good performance or increased functionality depending on the capabilities of the device and hence the name of Progressive.

YouTube’s PWA provides users a complete experience from the world’s leading video service, with optimized features and the interface design of a native application, adding the usability of mobile applications to the suite of features of browsers.

Video downloads on YouTube PWA

Since Google requires developers to add offline capabilities to their PWAs, the internet giant wants to set an example with a new feature that lets YouTube Premium subscribers download videos from the platform for offline viewing on ChromeOS.

The feature is being tested in an experimental phase as a ‘case study’ and Google describes it as follows:Watching videos offline on laptops and hybrid devices has been one of the most requested features from YouTube Premium users, and the YouTube team has already received great feedback about the offline experience. With the new PWA, YouTube Premium users have uninterrupted access to their favorite content, even on the go. A user can download the latest videos from their favorite creator to watch on their Chromebook on an airplane, at a coffee shop, or wherever they don’t have a stable internet connection«.

It’s a very cool feature that’s part of a YouTube PWA quite powerful, as it supports voice search, keyboard shortcuts, declarative link capture, web share, and many more features. The experimental phase will end on September 10, but was expected to be finally implemented to improve offline capabilities.

Google is one of the main proponents of these PWAs that allow bringing the usability of a native mobile application to the set of features of a modern browser, taking full advantage of advances in both areas of development. The benefits are obvious in that users can run them directly without additional steps. Most internet services require a landline connection, but there are also many useful functions for working offline as we have seen in this article.