YouTube video download: How to download YouTube video online for free

Download YouTube video: People living in an area with a crappy internet connection can attest to the frustration of playing stuttering YouTube videos. Also, re-watching a YouTube video drains precious data from your plan. To fix that, YouTube launched an offline view back in 2014 that allows users to download/ save YouTube videos on their device for later use. However, the feature does not apply to all videos on the platform and is limited to smartphones. Additionally, the saved YouTube videos work only on the YouTube app and disappear after 30 days. YouTube’s offline feature also doesn’t cover desktop users, which is why a lot of people look for tools such as YouTube video downloader. If you haven’t stumbled upon a good YouTube video download tool or app yet, fret not, we have got you covered. Below is the step-by-step guide on how to download YouTube video online for free on the device of your choice, including Android mobile phone, iPhone, Windows laptop, and Mac.

Read more: YouTube to MP3 converter: Download MP3 from YouTube videos for free through these apps and websites

YouTube video download app: How to download video from YouTube

Before getting down to third-party apps/ websites to download YouTube videos online, let’s take a look at how you can download video from YouTube. This is the official approach. YouTube allows users to save/ download YouTube video on the mobile phone. The video streaming service has a built-in feature on its app called ‘Offline view’. If you’re not familiar with it, here’s what you need to know. As the name would suggest, the offline view feature allows Android and iOS users to download YouTube videos via the app itself on their mobile phones for later use. You can save YouTube videos in several resolutions, going up to full-HD. These videos can be downloaded via mobile data or Wi-Fi network. If you are wondering how? Follow the steps stated below:

• In order to download YouTube videos online using the offline view feature, open the YouTube app and search for the video you wish to download.
• You can tap on the three-dot symbol next to the video search results and select the ‘Download’ option. Alternatively, if you are playing the video, you can tap on the ‘Download’ button (down arrow) below the video title.
• Before the YouTube video is downloaded on your mobile phone, you’ll be asked to select the video quality. The video will be available from 144p up to 1080p, or whatever is the highest resolution it is in.
• Once the download is complete, you’ll see a “View” button at the bottom. Tap on it and you’ll be taken to the offline YouTube downloads page within the app.
• You can also access YouTube’s video download list by tapping on the ‘Library’ option – usually placed in the bottom right corner of the screen.
• From the following screen, select ‘Downloads’ to see all the videos saved on your device for offline viewing. 

The steps are the same for both Android and iOS users. The videos downloaded from YouTube can be deleted by tapping on the three-dots icon corresponding to the video and selecting ‘Delete from the downloads’ option from the window that pops up. That said, as stated above, there are a few limitations with YouTube’s offline view feature. The feature doesn’t apply to all videos and lacks third-party app support, meaning you can only play the downloaded videos via the YouTube app.

How to download YouTube video online using browser

The universal approach to download YouTube video online on Android mobile phone, iPhone, Windows laptop/ PC, and Mac, as well as JioPhone. Unlike the aforementioned download video from YouTube method, this approach will help you save videos locally on your device and play them using any media player, including MX Player and VLC. Additionally, you don’t have to update the videos periodically, as you do with YouTube offline feature, to continue watching them. Now that we have gotten you up to speed, let’s take a look at how to download the YouTube video online using a browser. The method doesn’t require you to download any third-party apps. All you need is a browser that supports download.

• Open the YouTube video you wish to download online on your phone/ desktop’s browser
• In the video URL section and add the prefix ‘ss’ (without the quotes) before YouTube
• The new link should take you to Savefrom.net website, which after processing the video will let you download video from YouTube in your preferred resolution on your device
  

Users can also visit savefrom.net website directly from their browser for online YouTube video download. Simply paste the URL of the YouTube video they wish to download on the box next to ‘Download’. Post-processing the video file, users will be presented with a bunch of video quality options which they can choose to download the video.

How to download YouTube video online on Android phone using app

This was covered in our separate post, but for your benefit, we’ll briefly discuss the ways to download YouTube video on Android phone here as well. In addition to the browser method, Android phone users can download YouTube video online on mobile using a third-party app, called TubeMate. The app isn’t available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. However, Android users can still side-load TubeMate using an APK file. The feature is not available for iPhone users as iOS forbids users to side-load third-party apps. The steps for YouTube video download online on Android mobile phone using Tubemate are as follows:

• Download the TubeMate APK from the official website and install it on your Android phone.
• The installation will require you to toggle the ‘Install unknown apps’ option in Settings.
• Next, open the app, agree to ‘Terms of use’, give the requisite permissions, and jump to the home screen.
• You’ll get a short tutorial on how to use TubeMate.
• Once you’re through that, search for the video you wish to download and open it.
• Tap on the red download button (downward arrow icon) in the bottom right. This will open a window where you can choose the video resolution. Select the resolution, and then tap on the Download button (again a red downward icon) to save the video.
• If “Sometimes ‘*’ marked videos might not be downloadable” message is flashing on your screen, download and install MP3 Video Converter from the Google Play Store.
• After that, you’ll be able to download any YouTube video to your mobile phone whether it’s private or public.
• To manage the downloads library, tap on the downward arrow icon from the bottom tray. The following screen will show you the status of downloads and the list of YouTube videos downloaded on your mobile phone.
• The downloaded videos will also appear on your phone’s gallery

While TubeMate is free for downloading YouTube video on Android mobile phone, its absence from Google Play Store makes it a little insecure. We would recommend you use the browser to download YouTube videos online on your device.

YouTube video download for PC: Windows as well as Mac

To download YouTube video on laptop/ PC, use 4K Video Downloader. It’s among the best third-party applications out there. The YouTube video downloader for PC supports multiple platforms — Windows, Mac, and Linux — and offers quality options, ranging from 240p to 2K. Here’s how to use 4K Video Downloader to download YouTube videos:

• Visit 4kdownload.com to download 4K Video Downloader, and then install it
• Copy the URL of the YouTube video you wish to download
• Open 4K Video Downloader and paste the link
• The app will pull the video link from clipboard. Pick the video quality you desire and click ‘Download’

That’s it! So these are some of the ways through which you can download YouTube videos on laptop/ PC and mobile phone for offline viewing.

FAQs

Is it legal to download videos from YouTube through third-party software/ apps?

Well, as stated under YouTube’s guidelines, the videos published on the website can only be used for streaming. Not to mention that downloading videos for offline/Ad-free playback is depriving content creators of making money through YouTube’s AdSense. However, if you MUST download videos, follow the above steps.

How to download YouTube videos online on iPhone

The aforementioned ‘download video from YouTube’ and ‘YouTube video download online using browser’ stated above can be used to download YouTube videos online on iPhone. There is no third-party app for YouTube video download for Apple smartphone users.

YouTube videos download format

YouTube videos support as many as 13 video formats, MOV, MPEG4, MP4, AVI, WMV, MPEGPS, FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm, and HEVC (h265). The MP4 format is quite popular since it works on pretty much every device out there. MOV and AVI respectively are Apple and Microsoft’s video format, while the 3GP format has low video quality and considered apt for small-screened mobile phones.

Can you share downloaded YouTube videos?

You can share the downloaded YouTube videos online via third-party apps/ website with your friends and family using WhatsApp, Bluetooth, and other file sharing platform. That said, the videos downloaded from YouTube app can only be shared via social messaging platf as a link with the recipients.

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