How to Download YouTube Videos or Music on Android

Throughout 2015 Google made lots of changes to YouTube ^[1], and a few of them are options like saving videos to view offline, or even background playback of videos and music. We get a lot of questions about YouTube content, and here we'll explain how to save or download YouTube videos or music to an Android device.

To be clear, Google doesn't approve of users downloading videos or music from YouTube to their Android devices, as this is technically piracy. However, they do allow certain videos to be temporarily saved to their device for later playback while offline, but you don't get to keep it. Here we'll be explaining both.

Read: How to Listen to YouTube Videos on iPhone Without Video ^[2]

The offline playback feature is one users have been wanting for a long time, and finally arrived in late 2014. However, not all videos or content can be saved for playback while offline. The feature works great some of the time, but those wanting to do it with any and all videos or music, we'll explain how below.

There are plenty of apps available like YouTube Ripper that will pull content from YouTube that we can download and save, but again, this is illegal and Google or Apple quickly removes these from Google Play or the App Store. They pop up often, but are instantly removed from their respective app stores.

We'll say this one more time. Using some of the apps or services below are illegal, and Google doesn't allow users to steal content from YouTube, whether that be video or audio, and copy them to their devices. That said, you can do so if you'd like, and it's extremely easy. Users can save entire videos to their device, or even pull music right from a video, and download the MP3 file to their Android smartphone or tablet.

Instructions

First off we'll explain the legal and Google-allowed system, which is saving videos for later playback. Certain videos that support this feature will have a download arrow just below the video on Android devices. Tap this and select the resolution or quality you'd like to save, and that's it. Now just go into the menu bar on the left and select "Watch later" to find the list of saved videos to enjoy. These can be played without an internet connection.

Youtube-offline

However, if you want to download a video or song permanently, that is an option as well. There are plenty of apps available to rip content from YouTube directly to your Android device, but rather than link to apps that aren't available from the Google Play Store, or from shady sources, we've gathered a few simple websites that will do this for you. All users need is the URL from YouTube, and a few clicks will download the song or video.

While viewing a YouTube video just tap the 3-dotted "Share" button and on the popup that appears select "Copy URL". This is what you need, then navigate to websites like YouTube-MP3.org ^[3] or clipconverter.cc ^[4] and paste in that link. Usually within seconds they'll convert the video, and deliver a MP3 of the music, or a full video clip for the user to download and save to their Android smartphone or tablet.

Youtube-ripper

Once you've pasted the URL you just copied into the site like YouTube-MP3 simply hit convert, then download. From here you're all done and the song has been saved to your smartphone or tablet. This same process is very easy to do from a PC or laptop, but just as easy on Android smartphones and tablets. Clipconverter even lets you select the conversion format to suite any occasion or need.

Read: How to Create Custom Ringtones for Android ^[5]

Searching for "video downloader" or "Youtube Downloader" on the Google Play Store may also get you a few good apps that can do this with a mobile-friendly format, but the websites linked to above work great and won't disappear one day like many apps.

You now have whatever song or video you've downloaded. From here you can enjoy the videos, or even use music to create your own custom ringtones from the how to above. Whether you decide to do this or not is up to you. Enjoy!