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Yesterday users of the Metrotube third party Youtube application on Windows Phone ran into an error message explaining that a video playback problem was occurring. Metrotube became essentially useless for a few hours as the app designers came up with a bug fix. Along with the playback error being rectified came a few interface updates.
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There’s a logjam when it comes to Youtube apps in the Windows Phone store. This partially stems from the fact that Google won’t develop an app for Windows devices and makes changes to their site which adversely affect third party Youtube applications. One of the most stable and easy flowing Youtube apps for Windows Phone is Metrotube. Metrotube runs smoothly and displays feeds quite nicely. It may seem like a given to have features like favorites, subscriptions, and popular, feeds but while those features aren’t exclusive to Metrotube, they are not on every third party app. Metrotube is a low cost, high featured Youtube app for Windows Phone.
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The most recent update has some interface updates such as the ability to change the app theme and a delete all button in the search box, but the greatest update is fixing a playback problem that made the app effectively useless for the latter half of yesterday. Metrotube was made aware of the problem and quickly came out with an update. The Metrotube developer Lazywork acted quickly and along with the playback fix added some other features in the update.
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Very sorry for the delay everyone. A fix for the playback problem was submitted to the store hours ago. Waiting for certification.
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— Metrotube (@metrotube) January 28, 2015
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This continued battle over Youtube applications on the platform is frustrating to many Windows users. While third party apps can be stable and in some cases even better than official apps, lack of support often leads to issues. This isn’t the first time that Google hasn’t played nice with Windows. The crash causing changes yesterday may not have been intentionally made to bog down third party apps but it’s difficult to believe that an official app would have been blindsided by changes in video playback.
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