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Premium members can now test downloading videos on web
Hey everyone!
Excited to share that we’re beginning to test a top requested feature: YouTube Premium members can now download videos on YouTube.com to watch while offline on computers.
We’re experimenting with this feature on recent versions of Chrome, Edge & Opera browsers first. This feature requires technical specifications* that haven’t yet been adopted by all browsers – we’re working closely with partners to address this and hope to bring this feature to other browsers in the future.
We’re beginning to roll this out for Premium members who will be able to opt in to the experiment at youtube.com/new. More on testing feature experiments at youtube.com/new here.
Once you have opted in to the feature, you can follow these steps to download videos on web:
- Step 1: Start watching a video on a supported browser
- Step 2: Tap the download icon below the video player
- Step 3: A downloaded icon will appear below the video player once the video has completed downloading
Note: You can also download by clicking on the three dot icon when hovering over a thumbnail.
If you’re a Premium member opting into this feature – we’d love to hear your feedback! You can pass your thoughts along to the team directly by going to youtube.com/new and selecting “Feedback” next to “Download videos from your browser”.
If you’re a creator – rest assured that watch time from downloaded videos is counted the same as online watch time when the device reconnects to the internet. Additionally, when a viewer downloads content, it is protected by encryption so it can only be viewed on youtube.com. More on this at our Help Center here and here!– Hazel (TeamYouTube)
*like the ability to store downloads in the browser, APIs to load YouTube.com when offline, and for YouTube to stay in sync across multiple tabs.
*like the ability to store downloads in the browser, APIs to load YouTube.com when offline, and for YouTube to stay in sync across multiple tabs.
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Last edited Sep 24, 2021
More information here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/11977233
That doesn't stop people from using other tools to download your videos in such a way that they can be reuploaded elsewhere unfortunately.
Silver Product Expert CYAN recommended this
All Replies (64)
Google user
Jan 9, 2022
Nov 28, 2022
Nov 28, 2022
can't play in a background on app.
Nov 28, 2022
As a content creator I have what I feel is a legitimate concern, when a Premium YouTube user downloads one or more of my videos to view offline what is to prevent them from taking the video off of their device and using it without my permission? Does YouTube put some sort of a DRM (Digital Rights Management) into the video that prevents it from being uploaded to another YouTube channel or another video platform like Dailymotion or Vimeo? or is there a set expiration in the video that automatically removes the video after the expiry.
I like many of the other content creators here on YouTube work hard to create our videos and are understandable very protective of our work to make sure it is not exploited.
Last edited Nov 28, 2022
