YouTube App Review 2026

What is YouTube

YouTube is the world’s largest video-sharing platform, owned by Google and used by over 2.7 billion logged-in users every month. From music videos and movie trailers to full-length documentaries, live streams, and educational content, YouTube hosts virtually every type of video content imaginable — the majority of it completely free to watch.

Key Features

• Access billions of videos across every topic and genre
• Watch live streams from creators, news channels, and sports events
• YouTube Shorts for fast vertical video content
• Create playlists and save videos to watch later
• Subscribe to channels and get notified of new uploads
• Available in over 80 languages across all major devices

YouTube Subscription Plans

Free Tier

Watch all public videos at no cost with ads displayed before and during content. The free tier gives access to the full library.

YouTube Premium

Ad-free viewing across all videos and YouTube Music. Includes background play — so audio continues when you switch apps — and offline downloads for mobile viewing.

YouTube Premium Family

The same Premium benefits shared across up to five family members under one plan at a reduced per-person cost.

How to Download YouTube

• Open Google Play Store on Android or App Store on iOS
• Search for YouTube
• Tap Install and wait for the download to complete
• Sign in with your Google account or browse as a guest

Is YouTube Worth It

For free content, YouTube is unmatched — nothing else comes close to the depth and variety of its library. The Premium upgrade is genuinely worthwhile if you watch frequently and find ads disruptive, or if you want to listen to videos in the background on mobile.

FAQs

Is YouTube free? Yes. The core YouTube experience is completely free with ads. YouTube Premium is an optional paid upgrade.

Can I download YouTube videos for offline viewing? Offline downloads are available exclusively to YouTube Premium subscribers through the mobile app.

Does YouTube work on smart TVs? Yes. YouTube has a dedicated app for all major smart TV platforms including Samsung, LG, Sony, Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Roku.

What is YouTube Shorts? YouTube Shorts is YouTube’s short-form vertical video feature, similar to TikTok and Instagram Reels, for videos under 60 seconds.