YouTube testing video download feature for desktop

[BondiBlue]

Summary

Until October 19th, YouTube Premium members can test a new feature that allows downloading a YouTube video for offline playback, much like on iOS and Android. The feature is currently in beta, and you must have a Premium subscription to make use of it. This feature is not available to everyone right now, but that could change later.

 

Quotes

Quote

"If you’re opted-in and on a supported browser (“the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, or Opera,” according to Google), when you’re watching a video, you should see an option to download the video under the player."

 

My thoughts

This could prove useful to some people, though I don't see much of a use for it myself at the moment. Whenever I am somewhere without an active internet connection I'm more likely to have my phone with me, and that's primarily how I use offline videos from YouTube. 

 

And for anyone wondering about how the files are stored: they're stored as a bunch of small cache files within the Google directory (at least for Google Chrome). This feature does not download videos as MP4 or MKV files, and you can only watch them through YouTube in a supported web browser. In addition, just like with iOS and Android, the downloads only remain accessible for 30 days when offline. 

 

Want to try it out?

If you are a YouTube Premium subscriber just head over to youtube.com/new and see if you're eligible. If you are eligible then simply click the button labeled "Try it out" to enable the feature. 

 

Screenshots

Here are a couple screenshots showing the download button as well as the Downloads Manager page:

 

 

Sources

The Verge

[char3327]

Youtube does know that there are YouTube to mp3 or mp4 converters on the internet right? People are already downloading the videos they want for free...why make people pay for a premium membership to not even have the actual file??? Seems kinda useless to me

[duncannah]

Can't beat youtube-dl... (or yt-dlp)

[BondiBlue]

Just now, char3327 said:

Youtube does know that there are YouTube to mp3 or mp4 converters on the internet right? People are already downloading the videos they want for free...why make people pay for a premium membership to not even have the actual file??? Seems kinda useless to me

I doubt people would pay for YouTube Premium just for this one feature on desktop. Still, the downloaded videos are still playable with the full YouTube interface, so you don't have to use another program to watch your downloaded content. It's probably just a convenience feature that some people may enjoy. 

[char3327]

1 minute ago, BondiBlue said:

It's probably just a convenience feature that some people may enjoy.

Yah you're probably right...

 

I know for me paying for that doesn't make a lot of sense but I guess for some people it might...

[BondiBlue]

3 minutes ago, char3327 said:

Yah you're probably right...

 

I know for me paying for that doesn't make a lot of sense but I guess for some people it might...

I pay for Premium because I listen to a lot of content, and it lets me watch without ads while still supporting creators. And mobile downloads are really handy. It's something I can afford, so I pay for it. I've been using Premium since the YouTube Red days, and I enjoy it. I'd rather pay for Premium than more coffee. 

[Haaselh0ff]

16 minutes ago, char3327 said:

Youtube does know that there are YouTube to mp3 or mp4 converters on the internet right? People are already downloading the videos they want for free...why make people pay for a premium membership to not even have the actual file??? Seems kinda useless to me

So they can charge a premium and then DMCA the others of course! It's the Google/Youtube way.

[Ydfhlx]

59 minutes ago, char3327 said:

Youtube does know that there are YouTube to mp3 or mp4 converters on the internet right? People are already downloading the videos they want for free...why make people pay for a premium membership to not even have the actual file??? Seems kinda useless to me

How many of them can download 4K 1080p, let alone 1080p 4K? It is at least expected that if you pay for premium to download on phone you sheould be able to easily do it on desktop.

 

Another thing is that they don't support Firefox, google just hates them for being independent. Sadly, the Mozilla seems to be trying to make a Chrome clone for some reason, taking away all user options one by one.

[char3327]

Just now, Ydfhlx said:

How many of them can download 4K, let alone 1080p?

Most of them can

Youtube to MP4 - Online Youtube Video Downloader

https://youtubetomp4.io

[Ydfhlx]

12 minutes ago, char3327 said:

Most of them can

Youtube to MP4 - Online Youtube Video Downloader

https://youtubetomp4.io

1080p at most. As I said, 4K or 1440p users should expect to be able to do this. And it's also about convinience.

[BondiBlue]

19 minutes ago, Ydfhlx said:

How many of them can download 4K 1080p, let alone 1080p 4K? 

Uhh, lots of them? 4K Video Downloader does 4K just fine. It's even in the name.

[porina]

On mobile (pre)downloading makes sense if you intend to watch elsewhere when you don't have unlimited data. On laptop I guess the same could be argued. On actual desktops, it makes less sense unless you have a timed bandwidth cap or something like that.

 

I'd also separate out download to watch, and download to keep as separate user cases.

[Doobeedoo]

Nice meme.

[Mark Kaine]

16 hours ago, porina said:

On mobile (pre)downloading makes sense if you intend to watch elsewhere when you don't have unlimited data. On laptop I guess the same could be argued. On actual desktops, it makes less sense unless you have a timed bandwidth cap or something like that.

 

I'd also separate out download to watch, and download to keep as separate user cases.

It always makes sense, because yt or the uploader might remove the video at any point and then you can't watch it at all anymore... i doubt this is a permanent solution tho anyways? Usually a company like youtube would put a time limit on something like that, they aren't exactly known to care about  preservation. 

 

 

[CerealExperimentsLain]

18 hours ago, porina said:

On mobile (pre)downloading makes sense if you intend to watch elsewhere when you don't have unlimited data. On laptop I guess the same could be argued. On actual desktops, it makes less sense unless you have a timed bandwidth cap or something like that.

 

I'd also separate out download to watch, and download to keep as separate user cases.

Or download the video and thus own a copy of it forever, even if the channel gets deleted or the channel operator deletes the video.

[Dracarris]

18 hours ago, Ydfhlx said:

1080p at most. As I said, 4K or 1440p users should expect to be able to do this. And it's also about convinience.

youtube-dl lets you pick between all available audio and video formats. Someone should make a nice GUI for it.

[porina]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

It always makes sense, because yt or the uploader might remove the video at any point and then you can't watch it at all anymore... i doubt this is a permanent solution tho anyways? Usually a company like youtube would put a time limit on something like that, they aren't exactly known to care about  preservation. 

You got part of my point at least. I have to admit I've never read YT's TOS but I'd think it a safe bet they only allow you access in certain ways, such as downloading to watch later on Premium. It is not meant to be a download to keep arrangement. There is no expectation that content will remain available forever.

 

16 minutes ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

Or download the video and thus own a copy of it forever, even if the channel gets deleted or the channel operator deletes the video.

Erm... how to put it nicely. Consider the legalities if you don't have the permission to download to keep something. You better be sure on your fair use rules.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

Erm... how to put it nicely. Consider the legalities if you don't have the permission to download to keep something. You better be sure on your fair use rules.

You say that as if YouTube itself isn't going to disable the download button on certain videos, especially videos posted by music labels and other outlets.

[Dracarris]

28 minutes ago, porina said:

Erm... how to put it nicely. Consider the legalities if you don't have the permission to download to keep something. You better be sure on your fair use rules.

Erm.. what exactly do you expect YT to do in such a case? There is no way to even distinguish a download from a regular stream/watch.

[Beskamir]

23 hours ago, char3327 said:

Youtube does know that there are YouTube to mp3 or mp4 converters on the internet right? People are already downloading the videos they want for free...why make people pay for a premium membership to not even have the actual file??? Seems kinda useless to me

Cause then they can label the "free" version as "bad" and "unapproved"

[cj09beira]

4 hours ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

Or download the video and thus own a copy of it forever, even if the channel gets deleted or the channel operator deletes the video.

which these days its way too common, i have had more than 30+ videos from playlists disappearing, the worse part is i cant even see what was lost

[CerealExperimentsLain]

12 minutes ago, cj09beira said:

which these days its way too common, i have had more than 30+ videos from playlists disappearing, the worse part is i cant even see what was lost

Mmmhmm.  If you want to be able to access a piece of information reliably at any time in the future, make sure you own a copy of it.

[Dracarris]

42 minutes ago, cj09beira said:

the worse part is i cant even see what was lost

YES!! omfg this sucks BALLS! It is so annoying, either you consume stuff right away or there is a huge risk of it being gone soon. I started downloading all kinds of stuff but managing and storing this amount of data becomes a challenge. Just upgraded to around 16TB of usable RAID5 storage.

[Zodiark1593]

On 9/23/2021 at 11:09 AM, char3327 said:

Yah you're probably right...

 

I know for me paying for that doesn't make a lot of sense but I guess for some people it might...

I listen to a lot of content during my commute. YouTube pretty much forces the display to be on, while Premium allows background playing. Obviously, keeping the display on for long stretches of time is not great on battery life. 
 

Though I also don’t miss the frequent ads. 

[yume wo unixa]

This is definitely aimed at the students in the earlier thread that didnt know what a directory was,

the world is going to shit with technology.