YouTube has announced that it will change some developer tools, which means that the YouTube app will disappear on many Smart TVs on April 20, 2015.
Will affect TVs and media streamers
Shortly after Youtube ditched Flash as the default video player, Google has confirmed that its YouTube apps will stop working on many Smart TVs soon, as the company will move from “v2” of its API for developers to “v3”.
A full list of devices is not available, but Google confirms that Sony and Panasonic Smart TVs and Blu-ray players from 2012 and earlier will be affected. The same is true for Google TV devices. Samsung says that YouTube will stop working on its 2010 models, but it is unclear if 2011 or 2012 models will still work. The change will likely also affect other brands of TVs or streamer boxes.
The change will happen on April 20, 2015. Panasonic says that it is not possible to update old Smart TVs to “version3”.
YouTube is also in the process of switching to VP9 decoding, which can improve picture quality and give you faster loading/rewinding. For the first time, 2015 Smart TVs will also be capable of streaming YouTube in 4K resolution.
- Source: Google/YouTube
