YouTube starts offering downloadable videos

After causing outrage by muting videos with copyrighted music, YouTube has attempted to get regain some cred by making some of its videos downloadable.

The new feature is only available on a handful of videos so far – such as Barack Obama’s weekly address (above) – but is expected to spread across the site over the coming year if it proves popular.

Videos are available via a new ‘click to download’ button, which drops a high-quality H.264 file onto your desktop for playing in video players like Quicktime.

While legally suspect third party software has let you download YouTube videos for a while, it’s significant that Google has started providing an official service, particularly as it could reduce the number of clicks (and ad revenue) for YouTube, not to mention land it in some more copyright strife.

Will downloadable videos be enough to maintain your Youtube loyalty, or are you already moving to alternatives like Vimeo and Blip? Let us know in the comments section below.  

Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home