I used this daily on my Windows based htpc, so this sucks for me. Sad boosh
So few people probably use the lean back web interface that I'm sure it became more effort to maintain than it was worth.
Any opensource android tv apk for browsing yt or other video stream ? Kodi is a bit limited for crawling previews IMHO
Damn
There are lots of other YouTube apps to choose from. If Google wants us to use third party apps then so be it.
So, If they are really discontinuing the Web app then that means they will have to make Native apps for all certified platforms. Then that is actually good.
I read that as the YouTube TV interface going away and I was sad for a moment until I realized it was the TV interface for YouTube.
Dick move. Google don't be evil.
Android Police https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/09/13/sorry-htpc-owners-youtube-is-killing-its-web-based-tv-interface/
Android Police: It seems likely that this is an attempt by Google to limit streaming boxes, home theater PCs, and other TV-based devices from accessing YouTube unless there is some of licensing agreement between the manufacturer and Google. Since the leanback interface is simply a web app, it could be used on Raspberry Pis, home theater PCs, smart TVs with a web browser, and much more
Leanback is what allowed Amazon's Fire TV products to still access YouTube after Google pulled its official app. Putting my tin-foil hat on for a moment, perhaps Google is doing this to prevent Amazon from retreating to unofficial TV apps if the companies' current partnership ever sours
Whether or not that's true, the fact remains that Google is still going to be developing Leanback (or something very close to it), since it's what powers the YouTube app on smart TVs and Android TV. It's annoying that Google is artificially restricting the TV YouTube interface to only 'supported devices,' but at least we'll always have the Kodi add-on
Who uses the stock youtube app? Smart youtube tv is way better and gets rid of annoying ads.
Well, who does actually still need it?
This doesn’t make any sense. There are hundreds of millions of devices that use this version of YouTube between game consoles, streaming box’s and smart TVs. They aren’t going to abandon lean back YouTube. This message was probably about discontinuing support for a specific device. Seems like bad reporting. What am I missing?
Edit: sorry, I misunderstood the article. This article is talking about a webpage that looks and works like the leanback app. I thought it was talking about the leanback app being discontinued.