The development team behind the immensely popular video sharing site YouTube has recently announced that a new Android app meant to let users control YouTube Leanback on their desktop or on their TV has been launched. The app in question is appropriately called YouTube Remote and, as the name so adequately points out, it functions just like a remote.
Senior Product Manager Kuan Yong provides a more in-depth explanation of how the YouTube remote app works: “YouTube Remote creates a virtual connection between your phone and YouTube Leanback. To ‘pair’ your phone with your Leanback screen, simply sign into YouTube Remote on your Android phone, and to YouTube Leanback on your Google TV or computer with the same YouTube account. Just like that, you've connected your powerful multi-touch Android screen with the biggest screen in your home.”
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Once you’re connected you can search for videos you want to watch and easily send them to YouTube Leanback. You can also play, pause, skip forward, back, and even control the volume.
Please note that YouTube Remote, which is currently available for download in the Android Market, carries the Beta tag. The YouTube Remote app has new and experimental features that the official YouTube Android app doesn’t. You should also note that the YouTube Remote Android app is currently only available in the US. Yong explained that the app will become available in other countries in the near future.
YouTube Leanback was released as Beta experiment on TestTube back in July. If you are not familiar with YouTube Leanback, here’s the lowdown. YouTube Leanback immediately starts showing you stuff as soon as you access it, whether you do it online or on a Google TV (this October Google announced that YouTube Leanback is a feature of Google TV). YouTube Leanback shows you videos based on your viewing history and based on your subscriptions. YouTube Leanback has 10 channels to offer – Comedy, Entertainment, News, Science & Technology, How To & Style, and so on. Videos on those channels are updated on a daily basis.
A video showing how YouTube Leanback works is available on YouTube here.
The development team behind the immensely popular video sharing site YouTube has recently announced that a new Android app meant to let users control YouTube Leanback on their desktop or on their TV has been launched. The app in question is appropriately called YouTube Remote and, as the name so adequately points out, it functions just like a remote. 