YouTube's 'Smart Offline' a boon for customers or service providers?

YouTube recently announced that its new 'Smart Offline' feature will be rolled out soon, which will allow users to download videos at night for lesser data charges  

Ever since the YouTube feature was released in 2014, waiting for a video to buffer on YouTube has become an ease. However, the new 'Smart Offline' feature might not give the same experience to Indian users. 

The existing offline feature allows users to save videos while connected to any Wifi or other internet networks and later watch them offline. While the new feature - named  ‘Smart Offline’, offers video downloads at lesser cost in the night. But the major drawback is that it doesn’t work on a Wifi network. 

As YouTube has decided to roll out the new feature in collaboration with the service providers, Airtel and Telenor have already announced that they will reduce data charges during night hours. 

A blog post by YouTube said, "Many mobile operators already offer discounted data and promotions to their subscribers for Internet usage during late night hours."

"This feature is gradually rolling out to Airtel and Telenor customers today, and we hope to bring it to all users in India eventually," said the blog. 

Once users update their YouTube application on their phone, they will start seeing the 'save overnight' option when connected to a data connection. The new option will not be visible on a Wifi network. 

Service providers have reduced data rates, but it is still a plus to their business as connections that hardly used data services during the night, will probably use them more now.