More ways for schools & organizations to manage YouTube

Posted by Matt Ward, Software Engineer

(Cross-posted on Google for Education blog

In August 2015 we launched YouTube Settings in Google Apps to give schools and other organizations a way to manage the YouTube experience for users logged in to their domains and on networks they manage. Today we’re happy to announce a number of new features to make these more flexible and easier to use.

Channel whitelisting
Administrators and designated approvers can now whitelist entire channels, not just individual videos. For example, if you want to ensure that all current and future videos uploaded to your organization or school’s channel are watchable by your users, you can now simply add the entire channel to your approved list. Learn how to designate approvers.
Using YouTube settings in Google Apps for Education already gives your users access to all the videos on educational YouTube channels like Veritasium, but now your domain’s video approvers can add other channels as well, like your school’s YouTube channel.

More flexible options for administrators
Administrators have new capabilities to help them manage YouTube to meet the needs of their organization.
  • Administrators can now choose between two levels of Restricted Mode restrictions -- strict or moderate -- for their logged-in users. 
Admins can select between a strict and moderate level of restriction for YouTube. 
  • Network managers can now use an HTTP header to enforce either strict or moderate restricted mode on managed devices. 
  • Network managers can also use this new DNS configuration if they want to enforce moderate restricted mode on wifi networks they manage.
  • Coming soon, logged-out users on YouTube’s mobile apps on restricted networks will also get a restricted experience. 
  • And since we know this can be tricky to set up, network managers can visit this page to ensure their network restrictions have been configured correctly. 

YouTube for Schools
In August we announced that we would no longer be maintaining YouTube for Schools (YT4S). As of July 1, 2016, YT4S will no longer be available. View the YouTube Settings in Google Apps Help Center for additional details.

More information
Learn how to enable YouTube settings for your Google Apps domain and join the discussion in the product forum.



Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace: 
Full rollout (1-3 days for feature visibility)

Impact: 
Admins only

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI


Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

Launch release calendar
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