YouTube has released an API that you can use to embed YouTube videos in your Android apps.

The API was first announced in the summer at Google I/O 2012, and has now been released on an experimental basis. The API lets you embed and play YouTube videos in your apps, add support for YouTube ads, and set up closed captions for situations where you don’t want sound. 

While the YouTube blog says the API is still experimental, the team also says it doesn’t expect any major interface changes. The API works in apps for devices running Android 2.2 or above. There’s plenty of documentation for the API, and using the API is straightforward. The YouTube team has prepared several code examples to get you started, and you can check them out on code.google.com.

There are also some apps that you can play with to see how the API works in practice, showing it being used in Flipboard, BuzzFeed, and 9x9.tv. Flipboard (http://flipboard.com/) shows personal news and images in one place, while BuzzFeed (http://www.buzzfeed.com/) has news and social content. 9x9.tv (http://www.9x9.tv/android) lets users watch curated videos organized into TV-like channels.

There is an overview of the API in this video: