Google is pulling the plug on YouTube’s TV-friendly browser interface

Enjoy YouTube’s “leanback” interface while you can. A pop-up message on the streaming video site’s TV-friendly landing page says it’ll be gone soon.

There’s no indication of when it will be going away or why, but Mashable reached out to Google for comment. The pop-up message makes it clear that TV watchers will have to turn to supported devices like game consoles or streaming boxes as a user-friendly alternative for watching YouTube in the living room.

“This version of YouTube will be going away soon,” the pop-up message reads. “You’ll still be able to view youtube.com, but you can get an optimized experience on a supported device.” Users are then pointed to a YouTube help page that runs through exactly what qualifies as a supported device. (You probably own one.)

YouTube launched the “leanback” interface way back in 2010 as a way to bring streaming video into the living room. It was a time when smart TVs were still in their infancy, Roku was only two years old, and game consoles weren’t the multipurpose streaming boxes they’ve become.

Chances are high that Google is shutting down the web portal simply because, with so many other options, usage has tailed off. Did you even know this TV-friendly YouTube portal still existed? The news that it’s being shut down is probably the most people have talked about it in a number of years.

We’ll update this story if/when Google responds, but if you’ve been relying primarily on the leanback interface for YouTube on your TV, now’s a good time to look into alternatives. Also: you might want to think twice before you rely on your smart TV exclusively for streaming video.