The YouTube Offline feature, launched in 2014, allows Android and iOS users to save YouTube videos to their devices for later viewing. These videos can be downloaded through mobile data or Wi-Fi network. This feature comes with ad-support which means you have to watch the ads before watching the video.
Not every video is available offline
It is worth noting that not every video on YouTube can be viewed offline. Most of the popular YouTube content in India is downloadable. But sometimes you will see that some video is not available to download.
offline availability
Any video downloaded with the offline feature can be viewed offline only for 48 hours. Next, you will need an active internet connection and synced videos in the YouTube app to watch the videos.
upcoming features
The company had announced a few months ago that there would be two new handy editions to YouTube’s offline feature. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that users will be able to know how long the download will take so that they can start the download when they are not busy. Apart from this, you will be able to schedule downloads at night while sleeping, such as background downloading. In the coming month, we can see these features in YouTube offline.
how to download youtube videos to watch offline
To watch YouTube videos offline, the first thing you need to do is open the YouTube app on your Android or iOS smartphone or tablet.
Now go to the video file you want to download and see the ‘Add to Offline’ icon below the video. (Also you can select ‘Add to offline’ button by going to context menu button). Note that this icon will be marked with a cross if the video is not available for offline viewing. Which means you cannot download that video file on your device.
After clicking on the offline icon, the YouTube app will ask you to select the resolution to file – Low, Medium, HD. With low quality selected, the video will download faster and take up less space on your device. But the quality of this video will be very bad. Once the quality is selected, the video will start saving to your device.
how to watch youtube videos offline
Keep in mind that the saved video will only be available for viewing in the YouTube app. To find the file, you have to go to the homepage of YouTube. You can then either scroll down the video or tap the back button on Android.
Once you reach the homepage, click on the Account tab (the icon that looks like a human body in the top right corner).
On this page you will find the saved videos. By clicking on it, you will be able to see all the videos that you have saved for offline viewing. If you want to delete a video, click on the context menu next to the video and select ‘Remove’ from ‘Saved Videos’.