Google slips out YouTube Android Player API, third-party apps get full Nyan Cat experience (video)

For all of Google's emphasis on integrating its own services across Android, playing YouTube videos outside of the official YouTube app has usually required losing some piece of the experience, whether it's backwards compatibility, mobile optimization or just keeping viewers in the same app where they started. As it turns out, Google was well aware of this problem during Google I/O this year and teased a solution while everyone else was still recovering from their Nexus 7-induced fevers. A new YouTube Android Player API will let third parties integrate a full YouTube player into their Android apps with adaptive streaming, orientation and other special tricks intact. Any Android 2.2 or later device (including Google TV boxes) can come along for the ride, and views will count towards producers getting paid. Full details are only coming in the next few months, but app developers who've been craving a chance to slip in some viral videos can get an early look at the API near the start of the session video below -- or just load the Google I/O 2012 app, which has the code baked in.