Google releases standalone Youtube iOS app

They had to get it out by tomorrow, when Apple will release (or at least announce) iPhone 6 and iOS 6 without the Youtube app.

This looks like a rush job, but they'll likely improve it quickly. The Google+ app was totally horrible in the beginning, but they quickly made it one of the best social networking apps on iOS.

The icon isn't as sloppy on the homescreen itself, in fact the whole app is done quite well. Native, fast and leap years ahead of m.youtube.com - I was hesitant at first to upgrade to iOS6, because of the removal, but now I'm confident enough that they'll pull of a better version for the iPad too.

They might have just set the priority differently, given the time and resource constraints.

"Icon is no good" 1 Star review.

Man do I hate people who review IOS apps in the store.

Personally my initial impression is positive. The slideout menu imitates similar patterns I've seen on the iPad and seems to work well on my phone. Not entirely sold on modals (login is in a popup) - but I have a hate on for modals in general.

The slide-out menu pattern showed up on both platforms mostly simultaneously (think Facebook may have been an early adopter). Also, it doesn't seem to follow the action bar pattern any more than other iOS apps do. Back and search buttons in the title bar has been an iOS convention since the dawn of the OS.

Visually, it is adopting a similar "flat" design to Holo (as has Google+ on iOS), not sure how I feel about that but I'm not a primary user of iOS so my opinion is mainly moot there.

It looks very iOS6, actually. Not that I'm saying it doesn't look like the Android app (I don't have my N7 handy to check), but the Apple iOS6 apps have mostly moved to a gray/slate look very similar to this.

I think YouTube borrowed the menu-behind-the-content-when-it-slides-to-the-right from Facebook. Anyway, that's where I first saw it.

Design-wise, it looks pretty much like the new mobile website.

Hey! Glad I randomly found this post.

My baby cousins (I have around 6-7, and the number is quickly growing) are all huge fans of YouTube. Their parents teach them to search for appropriate things (Thomas the Train and Cars are popular searches) but I am sure they would love a version specifically for kids.

I'm not sure if I should fill out your form, or if you'd like me to ask the parents and see what their answers would be.

I often forget about comments I make on HN, so hit me on twitter @jonlim or my email in my profile.

Cheers!

Just guessing, but maybe they finished sooner? It's also possible the native maps app is going through significant changes and they plan to launch when iOS 6 launches.

I doubt the teams overlap so priority isn't material to which is released first.

The dropping of the app from iOS 6 won't affect you anyway, your iPhone is stuck on iOS 4.

Its probably using APIs that aren't in 4.2.1.