AppleInsider Staff
Parents with young children now have a new option for tablet-based entertainment, as Google on Monday officially unveiled YouTube Kids, a new app for the video sharing site focused on enabling children to discover content for themselves.
YouTube Kids breaks video content down into four categories: Shows, Music, Learning, and Explore. The app also includes a search function to find specific videos, and YouTube says that it will only display content appropriate for children.
Google has secured content for YouTube Kids from DreamWorks TV, Jim Henson TV, Mother Goose Club, and Talking Tom and Friends, among others. A curated selection of videos from existing kid-friendly YouTube channels is available as well.
Parents can set limits for the length of time that children can use the app, and background music and sound effects can be disabled. The search function can also be turned off, restricting viewing to only pre-approved videos.
YouTube Kids was initially leaked late last week, and reports suggested that it would debut exclusively on Android, though that is not the case. The app is available now as a free, 45-megabyte download from the App Store.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
14 Comments
Waaaiiit, I thought the naysayers were saying this was going to be an Android exclusive?
Google knows where the money is - and it's not on Android.
[quote name="EricTheHalfBee" url="/t/184904/google-launches-new-youtube-kids-app-on-apples-ios#post_2679843"]
Waaaiiit, I thought the naysayers were saying this was going to be an Android exclusive?
Google knows where the money is - and it's not on Android.
[/quote] You mean Google submitted it to the App store and as they have no say on when it gets released into the wild just did the announcement of its release onto google play. Journalists then made up the rest of the story.
No thanks google. Don't need you. PBS Kids (free) and Netflix rule on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. You're not going to suck my kids into your vortex and make them your product.
Is it only US or also available in other countries? Can't find it in the UK store.
That's not how the App Store works. The developer can have Apple release it as soon as it's approved, hold the app after approval until a date in the future, or hold the app after approval until you manually release it. Google purposely held the app back to give Android more thunder and a bunch of blog articles.