Devon Michael Dundee did a great write up on Marcos Tanaka’s app Play, a standalone watch later app for YouTube. I’ve been using the app for quite some time, thanks to the beta that was available for Club MacStories members. One thing in particular stood out to me in this article, though:
The one thing I’d like to see added to Play is background syncing of my video library. When I import a video via the share sheet, I have to explicitly open the app to ensure my video syncs up to the cloud.
I just want to take a moment to second this feature request, as this is something that plagues me too.
Too often I’ll be scrolling through the YouTube app, chucking videos into my queue to watch later, only to open the Apple TV app when I get home from work to realize my videos haven’t synced yet. Depending on how much I was switching between my iPhone and iPad throughout the night, this may mean opening the app on multiple devices in order to get my queue up to date. I would much prefer the app periodically syncing in the background, instead of forcing me to trigger it right as I’m getting ready to watch a few videos as I eat my breakfast before heading to sleep. (I know that last sentence was really weird, so here’s some context: I work grave shift at a resort front desk and have a lot of downtime throughout my shift.)
There’s so many great things about Play that I highly recommend it to anyone who consumes copious amounts of YouTube videos on a daily basis, but the lack of background syncing is the one area I feel the app falls short.
I’m not a developer so I have no idea how difficult it would be to add background syncing in after the fact, but I do know it’s present in Marcos’ next app, MusicBox, which I’m also in a beta for. Hopefully once MusicBox launches, Play can be looked at to see if the feature can easily be added. If not, I may have to fall back on a shortcut solution, much like Dundee did, which while not elegant, absolutely would get the job done.
If you want to pick up Play, it’s available on the App Store for a one-time purchase of $1.99.
Dan Stransky 