YouTube has quietly started testing a video download feature for Premium subscribers, at least until October 19.
Android Police readers with Premium YouTube subscriptions have started noticing a new option to download videos through the Labs page. According to Labs, the download feature will work with Windows, Mac, and Chrome OS, and the test will be ending in mid-October.
According to Android Police, it’s been made available to YouTube Premium subscribers in India and France, but should also be widely available in other areas.
The main draw of downloading YouTube videos is not having to worry about an internet connection. If you plan to travel or know you’ll be somewhere with limited or nonexistent internet, you can pre-load the videos you want to watch and not have to worry about it.
If you’re a Premium subscriber and have been included in this trial run, you should see a Download button in the video toolbar now. Any videos you choose to download should then appear in a new Downloads menu you can find in the sidebar.
While there have been ways to download videos from YouTube for a bit now, having an official option should be much more secure. Assuming Google decides to push ahead with the feature after the test, of course.
The test already has begun and should be appearing for Premium YouTube subscribers now. If you don’t see the option, you might not have been selected, or you might just have to wait a bit longer before being included in the trial.
Once the trial ends, who knows what will happen? Google might limit the feature to Premium, it may make it available to all YouTube users, or decide to skip the whole thing. We won’t know until we know, you know?
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