Do you want to download YouTube videos on your iPhone quickly and easily? The shortest and most official answer will always be to use YouTube Premium. Although this is not an option for you, it may comfort you to know that other methods are just as quick and easy to try and are also free.
From online sites to applications and even iOS shortcuts: There are endless alternative ways to download YouTube videos on iPhone. To enlighten you a little on the subject, today I will tell you how to do it in a few steps.
How can I download YouTube videos for free on iPhone? All methods
There are numerous ways to download YouTube videos for free on an iPhone. From web services that also serve to download YouTube videos on Android, to a more generic video download application. Below, I tell you the most used methods.
How can I download a YouTube video on my iPhone with iOS shortcuts
The first method to download YouTube videos on iPhone is to use the iOS tools themselves. To be more specific, the shortcuts section. This functionality was integrated starting with iOS 12 and allows you to automate tasks on your device.
Shortcuts are a versatile and powerful tool. So much so that many shortcut developers have posted their creations in repositories on the web so that iOS users have access to them. Among all the options, you can find shortcuts designed to download YouTube videos on an iPhone. Here the important thing is:
- Have the Shortcuts and YouTube applications installed.
- Go to the shortcuts page and activate the ‘Untrusted shortcuts’ option. This way you can install shortcuts other than the gallery offered by the application.
Check the repositories for the best option to download YouTube videos on iPhone. Until a few years ago, the most used was YouTube++. However, I have noticed that it does not work correctly on devices running iOS 16.
Use a Telegram bot to download YouTube videos on iPhone
Telegram is much more than a simple messaging app, as we saw in the post about watching free football on Telegram or F1 on Telegram. Likewise, among its nooks and crannies, you can find a friendly bot capable of helping you download YouTube videos. It is YouTubeDL and you can get it with the user @ytdownbot or with this direct link. Once inside, do the following:
- Type /start to start the conversation
- Paste the link to the video you want to download. The bot will almost instantly send you the downloaded video. Just by clicking on the file you can save it locally on your iPhone or even share it via WhatsApp or other apps.
There are also other interesting features:
- Download only the audio.
- Take a screenshot of a specific moment.
- Request to download only a certain part of the video.
Pages to download YouTube videos on iPhone
This is usually one of the most used methods by both iOS and Android users. In addition, it can be ideal for downloading free music for iPhone. This method consists of using a server with a slightly different URL address to link to the video in question and thus be able to manage its download. There are many portals of this style that you can try, such as Snappea, Savefrom or Y2Mate.
All of these YouTube video downloaders and converters work, broadly speaking, the same way:
- Enter any of these links and paste the complete link of the video you want to download into the search engine.
- In the case of Savefrom.net, it also works to replace the ‘www.’ for a double s. This will immediately redirect you to the external server and display the download options before you.
- You can choose the quality and resolution of the video according to availability.
- You can also download the audio separately.
- When you have everything ready, just click ‘Download’ and the file will be stored in the downloads folder of the iCloud Drive app.
Best applications to download YouTube videos on iPhone
Are you wondering which application is used to download YouTube videos on iPhone? Well, there are quite a few. Of course, some can only be installed through alternatives to the App Store. Therefore, if you decide to try them, it will be at your own risk:
TubeMate
This application is one of the oldest on the market. It is characterized by having a built-in browser in which you can search for videos, select them and download them. The menu offers a wide variety of formats and types of quality that you can choose for the video in question. You can see details of the app on the official TubeMate page.
4K Downloader
While it is not an iOS app, 4K Downloader is available for MacOS devices due to its cross-platform nature. Therefore, you can download the videos from your Mac and then share them on your iPhone device. The website also has other applications to download TikTok videos and even Instagram stories, so take a look.
jdownloader
Jdownloader is a download manager that allows you to save videos from different online services, such as YouTube. It is an open-source platform that simplifies downloading. It allows parallel downloads, recognizes captchas, automatically extracts files and can manage passwords. It is available for MacOS on its official website.
Worst case scenario: record the screen
Finally, an unorthodox but efficient method can be found in your iPhone screen recorder. Of course, it’s a tedious job, but it can be a good way to quickly extract a video. Especially if you are only interested in one fragment in question. Of course, be careful not to record the advertising as it could ruin the recording.
The best thing will always be to prepare the staging. Apply full-screen mode, turn up the volume as much as necessary and let yourself be carried away by the recording. Remember that you will not be able to perform any other actions in the background while capturing the video. So sit in a comfortable place and enjoy the content.
Download YouTube videos on iPhone: at your own risk
We have to make things clear. YouTube (and Google) doesn’t like you to download videos from their platform if you don’t have a Premium subscription. Here are the topics:
- Copyright.
- Ethical and moral issues.
- Violations of Google Terms of Service.
Therefore, the most recommended option will always be to subscribe to YouTube Premium to enjoy this functionality and others, such as listening to YouTube in the background. Not everyone can afford this and other services such as YouTube Revanced and other alternatives to YouTube are usually used.
Downloading YouTube videos on an iPhone is not difficult. You just have to find the most appropriate method. Did you find this information interesting? Leave me your thoughts in the comments and share this entry on the social networks of those who also want to know alternative ways or are looking for applications to download music from YouTube.