

War? YouTube app disappears from iOS 6 beta 4 as Apple breaks Google ties - Empro
http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/06/war-youtube-app-disappears-from-ios-6-beta-4/

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rkudeshi
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>

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
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.

~~~
shinratdr
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.

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nostromo
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.

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ctdonath
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.

~~~
objclxt
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.

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

~~~
addlepate
When did they announce that?

~~~
siglesias
iOS 6 was announced at WWDC on 11 June this year.

~~~
shinratdr
They never mentioned YouTube on stage though, it just wasn't yet removed from
the developer previews. That's like saying Apple advertised Mountain Lion as
having the 32-bit kernel because it was present in DP1.

I have little doubt they were planning to remove it the entire time and it
just wasn't a high priority issue until the license expired in between beta 3
and beta 4.

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Empro
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."

------
zbowling
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.

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jonknee
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
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.

~~~
jonknee
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.

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ahsteele
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.

------
paul9290
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.

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jpxxx
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.

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guelo
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
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.

~~~
guelo
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.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
With their 20% global marketshare vs 60% for Android, I think there's little
chance of that happening, particularly if you take account of which markets
have large potential future growth. There's no real reason for Google to play
hardball if they can get money out of Apple customers today (just like
Microsoft sold Office for Mac and for many years, possibly still today, made
more profit on an average Mac sale than Apple).

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wtracy
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.

------
Terretta
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.

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mmackh
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.

------
rrreese
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...](http://gizmodo.com/5897457/google-makes-four-times-more-money-from-
ios-than-android)

~~~
kkowalczyk
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.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
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.

------
cicloid
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.

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

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jbverschoor
[http://www.hyperswitching.com/post/28849912133/on-why-
apple-...](http://www.hyperswitching.com/post/28849912133/on-why-apple-
removed-youtube) my posting about this :-)

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

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

~~~
smackfu
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.

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

------
mmahemoff
That weird TV icon says it all about YouTube app.

Its makers parted ways and it was left unloved.

------
Steko
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

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

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

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

~~~
Macha
Why? They haven't done it for their Android app, which is far more in their
interest.

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

