YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream

Category

Description of App

Get the official YouTube app on iPhones and iPads. See what the world is watching -- from the hottest music videos to what’s popular in gaming, fashion, beauty, news, learning and more. Subscribe to channels you love, create content of your own, share with friends, and watch on any device.

Watch and subscribe

● Browse personal recommendations on Home

● See the latest from your favorite channels in Subscriptions

● Look up videos you’ve watched, liked, and saved for later in Library

Explore different topics, what’s popular, and on the rise (available in select countries)

● Stay up to date on what’s popular in music, gaming, beauty, news, learning and more

● See what’s trending on YouTube and around the world on Explore

● Learn about the coolest Creators, Gamers, and Artists on the Rise (available in select countries)

Connect with the YouTube community

● Keep up with your favorites creators with Posts, Stories, Premieres, and Live streams

● Join the conversation with comments and interact with creators and other community members

Create content from your mobile device

● Create or upload your own videos directly in the app

● Engage with your audience in real time with live streaming right from the app

Find the experience that fits you and your family (available in select countries)

● Every family has their own approach to online video. Learn about your options: the YouTube Kids app or a new parent supervised experience on YouTube at youtube.com/myfamily

Support creators you love with channel memberships (available in select countries)

● Join channels that offer paid monthly memberships and support their work

● Get access to exclusive perks from the channel & become part of their members community

● Stand out in comments and live chats with a loyalty badge next to your username

Upgrade to YouTube Premium (available in select countries)

● Watch videos uninterrupted by ads, while using other apps, or when the screen is locked

● Save videos for when you really need them – like when you’re on a plane or commuting

● Get access to YouTube Music Premium as part of your benefits

Note: If you subscribe via Apple, payment will be charged to App Store Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period at the rate of the selected plan. Subscriptions and auto-renewal may be managed by going to Account Settings after purchase.

YouTube paid service terms: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms_paidservice.

Privacy policy: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy

Version

18.46.1

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

No

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

17.2

Accessibility Comments

Mostly Accessible

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads most page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

There are some minor accessibility issues with this app, but they are easy to deal with.

Developer's Twitter Username

@googleaccess

Recommendations

11 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Michael Hansen 5 months ago

Options

Comments

It's a bit awkward but it is there. You can't get to the button by flicking, only explore by touch. When the video is open, (either playing or finished), just move your finger to the very botom-right of the screen and you should find the Share button. Double-tap that and the menu will come up. The button to Add To favourites and playlists etc. is at the bottom-left by the way. HTH PS - I would recommend the app You Player, it's better than Google's app overall in my opinion and the developers are more tuned in to VoiceOver accessibility.

By AnonyMouse on Friday, January 10, 2014 - 14:47

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
What's New in Version 2.3.0 * Find videos, playlists and channels together in search results * Formatting, positioning and user settings for captions / subtitles * iOS 7 keyboard and other improvements

By Ro on Friday, January 10, 2014 - 14:47

In reply to by AnonyMouse

I haven't updated this, waiting to see what users say about accessibility changes, if any. Safe to update I'm assuming? Thanks!

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Friday, January 10, 2014 - 14:47

I feel that this has improved accessibility. It is much easier to navigate to different sections, do searches, share links, add to favorites, and add and look through subscriptions.

By computerguy1985 on Friday, January 10, 2014 - 14:47

Once you search for a video, the refine search button is no longer labeled. Furthermore, voiceover no longer reads the various options found on the refine search screen. All you hear are clicks and the word "selected" for each of the options that is selected by default.

By Misty Dawn on Monday, February 10, 2014 - 14:47

All right, in the YouTube app, I quite frequently search for videos and, almost as frequently, refine my search based on "date added", "view count", etc. It seems that, in the latest YouTube app update, none of these features are labeled at all. Neither the button which used to be labeled "refine" nor the refine options once you get there are labeled anymore. I'm wondering, however, if this is just an issue for me, or, if not, if there is a work-around.

By Dave Nason on Monday, February 10, 2014 - 14:47

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
Hi Misty. I just tried it there now and have the same issue unfortunately. I'll post again if I come across a work around. But really the work around I use is to continue using YouPlayer instead :)

By KE7ZUM on Monday, February 10, 2014 - 14:47

Agreed. I love and use you player. I did a podcast on it 2 years ago when the app had just come out. The developer is very receptive to comments.

I personally think as many of us as possible need to keep on the backs of the developers in these situations. I myself have grown sick and tired of "settling". I'd like to be able to use, as much as it is possible, the same apps as sighted people use. On a related note, can anyone provide me a direct link where I can contact Google Accessibility about this issue? Those kinds of things are typically very difficult to locate in massive sites. Thanks.

By AnonyMouse on Monday, March 10, 2014 - 14:47

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

There are still some accessibility issues with the YouTube app but they have made some improvements. We have some of the unlabel buttons in previous versions are now labeled for VoiceOver.

What's New in Version 2.5.0

* Share and like playlists
* Quickly access your favorite playlists from the Guide
* Reply to comments and delete your own
* See if a comment was shared privately or publicly

 

By Michael Hansen on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 - 14:47

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

YouTube version 2.7.0 is now available:

"What's New in Version 2.7.0

Stabilization and minor bug fixes."

By Khalfan Bin Dhaher on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 14:47

New notifications tab and Bug fixes and stabilization.

By chris R on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 14:47

Well finally, something that has been annoying me for ages in this app has been removed. Voice-over no longer says "video entry" before each result when doing a search. On the other hand, if you have the "all" filter selected when performing a search, you can no longer tell which result is a video, channel or playlist which is a drawback.
Also, in the video player screen, the button that you press to get out of this screen labelled "pause and Collapse video", now lives up to its name and actually pauses the video when you press it!
I haven't yet found a way to keep the video playing in the background while you continue browsing though.

By the way, the double tap With two fingers pause gesture does work on the video player screen, and it has for a while. :-)

Chris

By chris R on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 14:47

OK, well there is actually a simple way to have the video play in the background whilst you continue browsing. It is simply to do the double tap with 2 fingers gesture to Resume the video after it pauses upon leaving the video player screen. This is actually really cool because you now have the choice to either continue browsing without the distraction of the video playing in the background, or to un-pause it when you want. Before this update the video would play in the background no matter what you did, the pause gesture did not work, and you had to return to the video player screen and pause it from there.

I've also noticed 1 or 2 handy VoiceOver hint scattered around the app.

Chris

By Misty Dawn on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 14:47

Is there any accessible way to record videos directly from the YouTube app? If so, how does one do this?

By Khalfan Bin Dhaher on Friday, October 10, 2014 - 14:47

This update fixed the "Add to Playlist" scrolling problem, along with a few other minor bugs.

By Khalfan Bin Dhaher on Monday, November 10, 2014 - 14:47

This version was updated for iPhone 6 and has fixed the following bugs:
* Prevent the status bar from overlapping the UI
* Address keyboard orientation issues
* Make scrubbing more responsive
* Show all playlists when adding videos

By Misty Dawn on Monday, November 10, 2014 - 14:47

Is there a way to record video directly from the YouTube app? If there is, please let me know how I can do this. If not, is there any accessible third-party app that allows you to do this, preferably with decent editing capabilities?

By Mike Freeman on Wednesday, December 10, 2014 - 14:47

Hello.

I have something like 253 videos in my Favorites list. I can't seem to get the Youtube app to show them all. I can scroll down and get perhaps 30 pages or screens of videos but can't seem to show the rest of the list except by running the last video on the list and hitting "next video" to go beyond this, one video at a time.

Is there a work-around so the whole list will show? On the Youtube site on Windows, there are "More" buttons to expand the list. How can one accomplish this on an iDevice?

Yes, I can use YouPlayer, I know; at one time, it, too, had scrolling problems bu these seemed fixed. But I wonder if the official Youtube app can be made to show my entire Favorites list.

Thanks.

By Jessica on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:47

Has anyone tried to use the official Youtube app since it was updated last?? I have found a couple of issues: When you touch some of the usual buttons, instead of speaking their labels, VoiceOver will just say "dimmed". Double-tapping them does nothing. However, they work as intended when VoiceOver is on. Then, when you've played a video, almost everything on the page becomes "dimmed", and inaccessible! You can't scroll your lists, or access anything in the left-hand column. To get even the limited functionality back, you have to close Youtube from the app switcher, start from square 1 and try again. Do you think they will fix this on their own, or should some of us try to let them know about this? I know there are 3rd party apps, but it sure would be nice if they'd fix this.

By Kira McCall on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:47

Yesterday, I discovered the problems another commenter pointed out. However, the video player is now completely inaccessible. The entire screen area of the video player is called "dimmed button." Does anyone know how to solve the problem, and do you think Google will fix this? I am now using YouPlayer.

By Twinklestar09 on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:47

Hi. I am experiencing the same problem of getting the "dimmed button" response wherever I touch the screen. If I swipe left or right, I can read things that way, and I can navigate using the rotor elements. But it is still very inconvenient since if I want to close a video to go back to the previous page, I have to start from wherever I last was or from the first heading and keep swiping left from there. It's very disappointing as I usually use YouTube to watch channels I'm already subscribed to and only sometimes do searches for specific things. Thanks for the above suggestion on another player I can try, Hopefully Google could fix this issue soon though.

By Usman on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:47

Anyone know how the best way to send a message to someone you're subscribed to? According to a help file for youtube, to send a message to someone is under the "about" section of their channel. However under the "about" section on the youtube app, I don't see send a message anywhere.

By Kira McCall on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:47

The video player is accessible again. Not sure what happened, but I'm happy it's been fixed.

By Diego Garibay on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:47

It was working perfectly but now it started doing it again. It's only with certain videos and it doesn't happen all the time so it isn't that annoying of an issue. Perhaps the update is rolling out incrementally.

By Diego Garibay on Monday, August 10, 2015 - 14:47

I can make this consistently happen when I am in a video and I scroll up all the way so I can do the comments. This does not go away until I close the application. This is at least one consistent way to make it happen.

By Jessica Brown on Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 14:47

Hi. When I click the expand discription button on a video, it turns into a collapse discription button, but nothing else happens. I can't find the discription anywhere on the screen or page. This is annoying because people put links in the discriptions and I want to click the links because I can not read the discriptions. Links also does not show up in the rotor when in the youtube app.

By Jessica Brown on Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 14:47

When I subscribe to channels the next time I use the app a few days later I notice that some of my channels have been unsubscribed and I have to resubscribe to them. Then they stay subscribed for a few days then unsubscribe again. Does this happen to anyone else? How do I stop it?

By Jessica Brown on Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 14:47

Hi. When I watch a video or subscribe to a channel other people can look at what I have done. Is there a way either in the app or the youtube website to turn this off?

By Misty Dawn on Saturday, October 10, 2015 - 14:47

OK, first, I've got to say, I am not at all a fan of the latest update.

Now, when I go to the Subscriptions tab, all I get is a list of videos that have been added to my subscribed channels. I subscribe to a lot of channels and, very often, I just want to see a few channels to which I subscribe. I used to be abel to go to a list of my subscribed channels instead of having to scroll through every new video that's added to every new channel, so I could pick out which channels I wanted to watch new videos on.

Is there now any way to get such a list of subscribed to channels in the latest version of the YouTube app?

By ThoroTester on Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - 14:47

Another example of why I dislike updating apps that work, this new interface is a step backwards in accessibility. Although the "create playlist" options now work, the "like/dislike" buttons have disappeared, and the interface has become uglier to use. I am finding newer apps are making the mistake of listing the duration time for media before the actual title, and this is indeed the case for search results in this update for Youtube. also gone is the flat, non nested menu options. My sincere plea to app developers is to perform some regression testing with voice over before releasing.

By Jesse Anderson on Sunday, April 10, 2016 - 14:47

After downloading the latest update on March 22nd, I noticed a new problem. The subscriptions tab doesn't read correctly now. Some video titles are right, but after you scroll down a few items, VoiceOver starts to repeat items already listed over and over again. I can see well enough to know that what VoiceOver is reading isn't at all the same as the screenshot. This makes viewing your subscription feed very difficult. It seems that you can use the horizontal buttons at the top of the subscriptions feed to choose a specific channel though. This view, along with the YouTube Red tab still seems to read well. You just can't view the recent videos in your overall subscription feed well. I did submit feedback about this bug to YouTube through the app.

If you haven't updated the YouTube app, I'd hold off on this update.

By TamagotchiTune on Sunday, April 10, 2016 - 14:47

I agree. I suggest not updating. It's even hard to watch videos now. When I tap on a video I want it takes me to a completely different video. So frustrating. I'm glad I didn't update YouTube on my iPad.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, April 10, 2016 - 14:47

This is why I use youplayer. It is so much better then the youtube app, and you can even add things to your playlists. You cannot delee videos though, but it still works.

By ftealucard on Sunday, April 10, 2016 - 14:47

Randomly bring up the app store while using it? Deleted it because of that. It also started skipping videos when playing a playlist, played first 2 but skipped third and went right to fourth. All I want is an app that can play in background while phone is locked.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, April 10, 2016 - 14:47

Actually they took away background app playing which is actually fine with me as I never use it in any apps except for bard. And I never had the bring up the app store issue in the now 5 years since I've been using the app.

Here's hoping they get the youtube problem fixed. I'm seeing this in other apps so this might not be a youtube issue but a voiceover focus problem.

By treky fan on Saturday, June 10, 2017 - 14:47

Hi all, recently, the latest update to the youtube app has seriously broken voiceover support. While everything is still read to you, whenever you try to swipe threw certain areas of the app such as a playlist you created or your favorites, the app crashes. Explore by touch has the same effect.

By Joseph on Saturday, June 10, 2017 - 14:47

I haven't had this problem. Running the latest iOS build, iPhone SE.

By Diego Garibay on Monday, July 10, 2017 - 14:47

The collapse video button is gone from the latest update of the YouTube app. It is impossible to get out of a video. Please tell me I'm doing something wrong here.

By JTran2013 on Monday, July 10, 2017 - 14:47

Hi!
The latest update to the You Tube app have a couple of major problems. One of the problems is crashing when I try to choose an individual video from a play list of a You Tube channel. This does not include a list of most recent list of videos. The other problem is the ability to exit a video using the callapse button. I find you can not exit a video while you're watching a video. The callapse button appears after you finish watching an entire video. The callapse button should always be available! Hope these problems can be fixed soon!

I'm using an iPhone 6 Plus with IOS 10.3.2.

By Jesse Anderson on Monday, July 10, 2017 - 14:47

The callapse video button has always been there for me, even in the recent updates, including the one that just came out yesterday.

I am encountering the crash to Home Screen bug though every time I try viewing a video from a playlist from my, or any other channel. I have submitted this bug to Youtube. I'm running an iPhone 7 Plus.

By Aidan JK on Saturday, March 10, 2018 - 14:47

Hello hope everyone is well.
Button which collapses the videos is not working. It will work when the app is installed, but stop the first time the device is switched off, or app is closed on the switcher. This is on iPhone 7 running latest iOS. Current solutions if using this app are downloading app at start of each session or attempting to locate the button on the top left with Voiceover turned off.

By TheSchaedel on Saturday, March 10, 2018 - 14:47

Hello all!
I have got a strange bug in the "Start" tab. When I want to swipe through the recommended videos, my Voice Over shows me blank objects between the videos. It also reads the video description twice and in an odd order.
I can temporarily fix this by reinstalling the app, but after closing it the bug reappears. This is not happening in other tabs or playlists.
I am using an iPhone 8.
Kind regards.

By Rocker on Saturday, March 10, 2018 - 14:47

Using an iPhone ate, I am experiencing the same issues as listed above after the latest update of YouTube on iOS! Prior to the latest update, there was another issue where after collapsing the video the video would continue to play and you had to swipe right down to the close button! Extremely onerous and very annoying! It’s not just us blind users that are continually frustrated with YouTube, it’s blind and sighted people alike! In the past, I have found that if you leave a one star review in the App Store along with comments accordingly, the developer might actually fix the app! But hey Colin it’s google right? Just like talk back, the YouTube app is a shite show!

By Jordan on Saturday, March 10, 2018 - 14:47

I can also confirm that collapsing videos does not work.

By TamagotchiTune on Saturday, March 10, 2018 - 14:47

Yes. I am having the same issue. Cant collapse videos and it is very frustrating.

By chris R on Saturday, March 10, 2018 - 14:47

I am also not able to collapse videos with voiceOver on.
Rea the issue where videos continue to play after they are collapsed: I actually don't mind this feature much and usually a magic tap will stop playback anyway. It is not useful in every situation though.
Chris

By Mattie SV on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - 14:47

Hello all!
I am having a few problems with the latest YouTube update using Voiceover. One of the issues is the previous video and next video buttons are not working. Also I am not able to scroll down and read the comments on videos which is my favorite part of YouTube! Actually I cannot scroll down at all and hear any other videos listed either . I keep getting this message “error loading tap to retry” no matter if I am on Wi-Fi or using my cellular data. Is anyone else having these problems? Thanks! If you are please leave some feedback for the YouTube team as I did hopefully these issues will be patched thanks!