Google Play betas for YouTube Music, TV, Google News, Clock, and Play Books disabled [U]

Abner Li | May 28 2022 - 6:31 pm PT

Like the main Android client, Google is now offering Play Store betas for YouTube Music and TV to presumably test new features ahead of time.

Update 5/28: In recent days, leaving a beta and trying to rejoin results in a “Can’t join, beta program has ended” message. Despite this, “Join the beta” still appears on the YouTube Music, YouTube TV, Google News, Clock, and Play Books listings (on Android) as of today.

As far as we can tell, Google never released beta versions of the five apps. These testing programs could have been accidentally made public and only ever intended for Googlers. Even so, it’s odd that the sign-up process stayed up for so long.

Update 5/11: Three more Google apps have recently introduced betas:

The betas are still not available. Meanwhile, we were able to successfully join the YouTube Music beta and version 5.06 installed afterwards. The stable release today is 5.05 and joining the beta looks to give you earlier (and/or immediate) access to the version that’s currently rolling out in phases (and not yet widely available).

Thanks SpasilliumNexus

Original 5/10 @ 4:49 p.m. PT: You can sign-up via the Play Store listings on mobile or directly on the web:

At the moment, there are no beta releases available for either application, but it’s taking an awfully long time for the Play Store to acknowledge that you’ve joined. In my case, it’s been stuck on “Joining beta…” for the whole afternoon.

The YouTube app has long offered a beta, and that’s now being extended to the other major clients. There are no previews for YouTube Kids or Studio.

It’s somewhat interesting that YouTube is even offering a beta for Music as the service — more so than the average Google app — rolls out features via A/B tests. One possibility is that those enrolled in the beta channel will be opted in to more server-side previews.