YouTube Kids is a version of YouTube designed for kids, which is apparent from the name. It lets them quickly find content from their favorite characters, and all the content is purposed to be safe and inexplicit.
It has been available for a while on phones and tablets, but that wasn’t ideal. Even though you can cast content to TVs, many kids don’t use these devices. When I was a kid (not really that long ago), I didn’t have these fancy devices, but I did have a TV.
We have discussed YouTube Kids before. Back in February, they announced that they were adding original programming and the APK’s source hinted at Android TV support. Now this TV release is official. In a post on YouTube’s blog, they have mentioned that the app is coming to more screens and specifically smart TVs. They mention several different platforms they’re launching it on.
With YouTube Red, their $10/month premium service, it makes sense to expand to more devices to give subscribers greater value. It’s arriving on Samsung TVs, LG TVs, and Android TV.
The YouTube Kids app will be available on the following television sets: all 2015 – 2017 LG webOS TVs via the LG content store, all 2013 – 2017 Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-Ray Players that have access to the Samsung App Store, and after a firmware update on 2016-2017 Sony TVs (with the exception of Android TV, which will be available soon). Happy viewing from our family to yours!
It looks like Android TV’s app will be arriving as an update to the app on the Play Store. The update isn’t available yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as it is.