- Users have spotted a new feature that allows free YouTube users to download videos for offline viewing
- Despite the feature being available to YouTube Premium subscribers, Google has shared that offline downloads have always been available to free users – but only in certain markets
- There are several limitations with free offline downloads, including video download quality
Update Friday, August 22: Google has reached out to us to confirm that downloads of “certain videos” have been available to free users in some regions for some time. However, those regions don’t currently include the US, UK or Australia, and Google has told us that it has no plans to roll out the feature to non-Premium users in those countries.
Original story continues below:
The video-sharing service has introduced a new download feature, which is the first major upgrade for free users. It was first spotted by a user on Reddit (see below), and allows free users to download YouTube videos and watch them without an internet connection.
New feature allowing users to download videos without premium (At not the best quality) from r/youtube
As well as video downloads, YouTube Premium subscribers have had access to a plethora of additional benefits, such as access to ad-free content and picture-in-picture playback. The company also recently relaunched its YouTube Premium Lite tier, which only offers subscribers ad-free viewing.
If you use YouTube’s free version and have been considering upgrading to Premium as I have, this feature could be a good reason to stick with the free plan for a little longer. However, the new downloads feature in the free version does come with a few catches.
Video quality limits is the biggest setback
Despite it being a big upgrade for free users, the biggest limitation to the feature is the download quality. If you’re using the free version of YouTube you can only download videos at 360p and 144p, which is borderine insulting compared to YouTube Premium’s 1080p and 720p resolution options – but it doesn’t end there.
Paying YouTube subscribers can reap the benefit of unlimited downloads, but if you’re using the free version there’s a capped limit on how many videos you can download, although what this cap will be isn’t yet clear.
Since the YouTube Premium Lite tier only offers ad-free viewing for some videos and not an option to download videos, signing up to the cheapest plan doesn’t currently grant you download access – although given that limited downloads are being rolled out for free users, YouTube may also be planning to roll out the feature to Premium Lite subscribers.
The final catch is that music videos are excluded from free downloads, and you’ll still be required to upgrade to YouTube Premium if you want to take advantage of this feature. This is particularly disappointing, especially if you rely on YouTube for music video playback as opposed to music streaming services, which I personally do.
With that said, the setbacks that come with YouTube’s latest upgrade don’t come as too much of a surprise, even if they are rather restricted. YouTube had to start somewhere with its first major upgrade for free users, and I’m hoping it will improve it’s offering over time.
Is this enough for you to stick with YouTube’s free version? Or will you still consider upgrading to Premium? Let us know in the comments.