YouTube TV App Reviews

Overall, the service is pretty good. I wish there was a proper “guide” to see what’s coming up across all channels at the same time. But what I really want is a dedicated Apple TV app. Using Airplay from the iPhone to Apple TV usually works fine, but why do I have to hold one device hostage in order to stream it onto another device?

My family and I love YouTube TV, its really fantastic. One problem I have with it is Casting to your TV (For me its to my Blu-Ray player with youtube built in) almost never works for me, and if it does, it works great! Now, to explain this a bit more, casting doesnt show up on the app, but it shows up on the YouTube app. (Never have a problem there) However, in the TV App, I have to redownload every day to use the casting feature. Also, the recorded shows could use an update with a view that allows to see every show with a preview image. Overall, this is a great alternative to DirecTV or Dish Edit 1/31/18 : I found out a while back that the casting ussie is with all SAMSUNG devices, and it so happens to be that my Blu-Ray is Samsung, and my Smart TV is also a Samsung... I was told it should be fixed in the next month etc

Why doesnt YouTube spend its money on people with better brains no one wants this industrialized YouTube putting dead bodies in front of twelve year olds I get that they want to make more money but what the heck is this ???

All in all, it’s pretty good, but has enough annoyances I’ve considered switching services. First of all: they advertise its $35, which it is unless you sign up through the iTunes / AppStore, then it’s $40. I guess they tack on the processing fee... so save yourself $5 a month and sign up in a web browser. There’s no difference in service. I really like the overall interface and interactivity, but some of the UI could use more guidance / direction. Not having an AppleTV app is a huge pain point - yes you can stream from your phone, but I have found the overall experience troublesome and ultimately taking away from the rating of this app. While YouTube states you can do other things on your phone and it will continue to stream in the background, it’s easy to accidentally open an app that disrupts streaming. But my biggest pain point is below: I consistently had issues when watching a recorded or on-demand program that would go to commercials: 1.) between switching from the show to a commercial, and in between commercials, it goes back to the main AppleTV screen for just a moment... not a problem per se, but annoying. 2.) my biggest complaint: Often times, after going to commercials, if your phone is locked or not in the YouTube TV app, it will play some commercials, then appear to hang or stop. You have to switch back to the YouTube TV app, press play, and it will “reset” and play all the commercials again even the ones you just watched, (and you still have to watch your phone closely that it doesn’t turn off again or you have to start the process all over). This can be a problem when using my iPhone X which has a short auto lock unless I’m looking at the screen, which I’m not doing while trying to watch the tv. I think I saw the same ad 5 times in one commercial segment because I wasn’t preventing this from happening well... screaming 2.5 year old and 5 month old baby and whatnot. All in all, it’s a good start, but lacks some of the polishing that could make this absolutely fantastic.

So far everyone in the family is a fan; the opportunities for improvement would be more flexibility to see the schedule per channel for the whole day. It’s more visible on the iPad but more times than not I’m on my phone pulling up the app. For movies I’d like the option to view the unedited/uncensored vs the PG, made for tv version.

Main problem is the Chromecast button dissapears constantly (streaming tvs). On a side note, this problem does not exist when chromecast are used and connected. Seems like some polling protocol is missing. The only way to fix this is to uninstall / reinstall. :( . This is not ever a problem on the normal youtube app. Another chip in the review is that I cannot play youtubetv in the background on IOS. Why is this restricted when this is a paid service? I know this can work fine as it is no issue on Amazon or Netflix. Please fix as I want to be able to multitask.

So the main issue I have is the casting icon disappears every time I restart the app. To get the app fully functional again and use the casting feature I have to reinstall the app. This issue does not exist with the original YouTube app and the YouTube Kids app. Very frustrating.

The cast icon is now missing in the latest update, so I cannot cast to my VIZIO

I like that YouTube TV is cheaper than cable, but that shouldn’t mean an inferior product than other apps. While watching a recorded show on YouTube TV, I try and fast forward the commercials. Every time I do, the app loses its connection with my Chromecast and I have to disconnect and reconnect. It seems like there’s an update on the app every week, yet this problem is never addressed. If Hulu’s live TV option had AMC, I would probably switch to them so I wouldn’t have to reconnect to my Chromecast every 10 minutes. With a service that’s backed by Google, you would think bug fixes like this would be cleaned up quickly. Using other apps like Netflix or even YouTube I never lose a connection to my Chromecast.

Before the update I could stream to my chrome cast and my Vizio built in chrome cast television set with Apple iPhone now only chrome cast hdmi hook ups work, also they need to make it so you can record/dvr specific episodes not just the series then it would be 5 stars

I love it, I love the fact that it shows live tv, also I love that it’s connected with showtime as well so I can see all my favorite shows and go back and watch the episodes that I missed, in conclusion I love that I can watch live tv news and tv series’s whenever I want and wherever on my iPhone. ??????

Lost the ability to screencast in 2.0+

The cast button is constantly disappearing, which seems to only be solved by deleting and reinstalling the app. This doesn’t always work though either. Considering they charge for this service, this kind of glitch should have been fixed a long time ago.

When I originally installed the app, I was able to cast to my SmartTv. However, the cast icon has disappeared and will not return. I wanted to drop cable and use this service, but cannot until this is fixed.

I am enjoying the the app and considering a move to “cut the cable”. The great the thing about the YouTube TV app is it comes with DVR like functionality which is great. However, on my iPhone 6 the ability to cast works only about 25% of the time because it can’t “see” my smart tv (yes I’m the same WiFi) and I need to constantly uninstall the app to rectify the issue. Oddly when YouTube tv is not able to cast youtube regular app is working fine.

Need more channels, nick for my kids is a must and CNN.

Forty dollars per month? I believe I will pass.

The quality of video streaming blows my choppy DTV service out of the water but a couple issues lead me to unsubscribe. As others have said, I constantly lose connection from my phone to my Chromecast which makes remote control use difficult or impossible without closing and restarting the app. My largest complaint though were the ads. Im fine with having ads on a semi-tv experience but they were often three times louder than the content I was trying to watch. Thats wholly unacceptable and is the major reason I unsubscribed.

When is YouTube TV app coming to Apple TV (4th Gen)? Also, please do your best to Air both the early and late NFL games in local markets next season. Disappointed that more games werent available this past year.

When will iPhone X full screen be available?