YouTube Testing Offline Video Downloads on Desktop Browser for Premium Accounts: How to Enable

YouTube's new feature is only being tested until October 19.

By Nithya P Nair | Updated: 23 September 2021 15:43 IST

YouTube Testing Offline Video Downloads on Desktop Browser for Premium Accounts: How to Enable

Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Gadgets 360

YouTube’s new feature supports the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, or Opera browsers

Highlights

Select YouTube Premium users can participate in the test
Users can choose to download videos in resolutions from 144p to 1080p
YouTube already offers mobile video downloads for paid subscribers

YouTube is testing a new feature that allows users to download videos on their desktop Web browser. The latest feature is currently available as an experimental feature for Premium subscribers. YouTube currently allows paid subscribers on Android and iOS to download content for offline viewing. This feature will only be supported in computers with the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, or Opera browsers.

Interested users can visit YouTube's Try experimental new features page that lists tests available for Premium subscribers. While watching a video, eligible users can see an option to Download the video, right beside the like and share buttons.

To ensure the quality of the videos, the user can choose to download in various resolutions in the Settings menu with full-HD (1080p) as a maximum. High (720p), Medium (480p), and Low (144p) are also available. To free up space, there is an option to delete all local downloads from the browser cache with one button.

By clicking on it, YouTube will start downloading the video. Once the download is complete, users can watch it from the Downloads section that's accessible from the hamburger menu on the left side of the screen below the “Watch Later” icon. Downloaded videos can be played back from youtube.com/feed/downloads or via the side navigation panel.

The new feature will be available for testing until October 19, but YouTube is likely to launch it officially soon.

At present, the YouTube app for Android and iOS allows Premium users to download videos for offline viewing, provided the video is not private and the creator allows it.

Windows 11 has been unveiled, but do you need it? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading: YouTube, YouTube Download, YouTube Premium, YouTube Download Video

Nithya P Nair

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Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations. More