YouTube Kids TV app going away in July, replaced by main YouTube client

Abner Li | Feb 26 2024 - 10:10 am PT

Last May, Google integrated YouTube Kids into the main YouTube app on smart TVs. This will soon be the only way to access YouTube Kids on television.

YouTube Kids has long been available as a standalone app on Android/Google TV, Apple TV, Samsung, LG, and Fire TV with its own homescreen icon.

The integration into the main YouTube client last year helped bring YouTube Kids to game consoles, more smart TVs, and Roku.

Google announced last week that this unified experience will be the only way to use YouTube Kids. YouTube confirmed to us that those various smart TV and streaming device apps will be going away in July.

To access, select your profile picture in the navigation drawer to open the “Who’s watching” — as seen above — screen (if it doesn’t appear at launch) and pick a YouTube Kids profile.

There are otherwise no changes to the YouTube Kids experience, content, parental controls, or settings.

This lets Google just maintain and update one application, especially on platforms that aren’t Android or tvOS. However, one downside is losing the prominent app icon on television homescreens. It’s similar to how YouTube Music is part of the main client on TVs, with Google (on the Play Store) only offering an icon shortcut.