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YouTube is now testing a video download feature – here’s how it works

You’ll have to be a Premium subscriber, and it’s only a trial run until October 19

Youtube logo with blurred background
Image: KnowTechie

If you want to watch YouTube videos when you don’t have a solid internet connection, you understand the pain and hoops you have to go through to download videos.

It seems that YouTube doesn’t want you to use sketchy downloaders anymore, with the company now testing out a feature that lets YouTube Premium users download videos for later viewing.

First spotted by Android Police, via some of their readers that are subscribed to YouTube Premium in India and France, you can check to see if the download feature test is live for you at youtube.com/new. We checked ours but could only see the previous test for Picture-in-picture on iOS.

How to download videos on YouTube

If the test is live for you, you can download videos for later viewing (but only via a desktop browser)

  1. Head to any YouTube video

  2. Click on the Download button below the video (it’ll be in the toolbar that has the controls for Thumbs Up/Down, Share, etc.

  3. Once downloaded, you can find all the videos at youtube.com/feed/downloads or from a button on the side navigation panel

Android Police says it should work on the newest versions Windows, macOS, and Chrome OS. It’s also only in testing until October 19.

You can download in up to 1080p resolution and remove downloaded episodes from the settings menu. We’d love to see YouTube keep this as an ongoing feature once the testing period is over, as having to deal with sketchy browser extensions or other tools to download videos for offline viewing is a horrible situation.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.

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