YouTube

Video for watching, sharing and creating

YouTube is a video platform for watching clips, channels, live broadcasts and short-form videos, while also giving creators tools to upload and manage their own work. It suits viewers who want one app covering entertainment, news, education, music and practical guides, as well as creators building an audience from a phone.

What the app covers

• Personalised discovery: Home and Explore surfaces organise recommendations around viewing habits and popular topics.
• Subscriptions and history: Users can follow channels, return to watched videos and keep their activity connected across supported devices.
• Playback controls: Videos support quality selection, captions where available and viewing on phones, tablets and compatible televisions.
• Creator features: The app supports uploading videos, going live and interacting with audiences through comments, live chat and other channel features.
• Optional extras: Premium subscriptions and channel memberships provide additional ways to support creators and access subscriber features.

A broad library with a busy interface

The main strength is range. YouTube brings together professionally produced programmes, independent channels, music, tutorials, commentary and user-uploaded clips in the same catalogue. Navigation is built around discovery, subscriptions and personal history, making familiar channels easy to revisit. The large number of content types can also make the interface feel crowded, particularly when short videos, live content and recommendations compete for attention.

Scale that has lasted

Published by Google LLC in Video Players & Editors, YouTube has recorded more than 10,000,000,000 installs and 168,613,771 ratings. Its current rating is 3.887391. Those figures reflect an app used for far more than occasional video playback: it has become a regular destination for both audiences and creators, with enough breadth to remain useful across different viewing habits.