If you are looking for ways of how to download a YouTube video on your iPhone or Android phone, below are the easiest ways to do it.

YouTube is a hub of videos made by millions of content creators. From entertainment to education, YouTube has all sorts of videos. It is helping people learn to cook, to speak a different language and whatnot. There’s almost everything available on the internet, you just need to find the determination to learn it.

If you have fast internet at your disposal, watching a video isn’t a problem. However, sometimes the internet isn’t available everywhere and nobody is a fan of buffering. So the easiest way to deal with the problem is downloading the video like it was done in old times.

There are two ways of how to download your favorite YouTube video on an iPhone or an Android device. An official and the other, a rather unofficial one.

Is it legal to download a YouTube video?

Important: According to Google’s terms of service for YouTube, the answer is no: “You may access Content for your information and personal use solely as intended through the provided functionality of the Service and as permitted under these Terms of Service. You shall not download any Content unless you see a ‘download’ or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content.”

So if you are downloading the videos for personal viewing, you should be fine. YouTube’s policy is to protect advertising revenue lost by users downloading videos. So if that’s the case, you could be held liable.

The content on YouTube that is permissible to download includes public domain videos that aren’t copyrighted, clips covered by a Creative Commons license, and videos that friends and family have shared with you (and wouldn’t mind you downloading). 

The copyright videos would require you to take the permission of the content creator.

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How to download a YouTube video: The official way

YouTube Premium

This is provided by the platform itself. It’s a paid subscription service for $11.99 per month.

This provides the users with an ad-free version and the proficiency to download videos to view later.

It works in a similar way on both Android and iPhone.

1. Subscribe to YouTube Premium.
2. Tap the download button below the video and select your preferred quality.
3. You’ll be able to see a checkmark showing the progress of the download.
4. Once it’s downloaded, it will be there in your library and account section too.
   

How to download a YouTube video: the unofficial way

If you don’t want to sign up for YouTube, there are several ways but if you put those copyrighted videos to use, it could potentially lead to legal issues. So keep this in mind before you learn how to download a YouTube video on your iPhone or Android phone.

On iPhone

It’s very complicated to download a YouTube video on an Apple device. But in case of a desperate need, this is what you can do.

1. Download the app called Documents by Readdle.
2. Once you have that installed on your iPhone, go to the YouTube video you want to download and copy the link to the video.
3. Now, open the app Documents by Readdle and go to the browser that’s built-in to the app itself. 
4. Within the app’s browser, go to any third-party YouTube download website. (These websites keep changing so cannot provide a specific one to avoid confusion.)
5. Once you have reached the desired website, paste the link of your video and select the quality of the video you want.
6. Now within the Readdle app, you have pasted your link to the download form and tap on the Download button.
7. After that, head over to the Downloads tab within the My Files menu in Documents by Readdle.
8. There you have your downloaded youtube video available offline at all times, no buffering!

Tip: If you also own a Mac, then a simpler way would be to download the video from a third-party website and just Airdrop on your iPhone. It’s much much simpler this way.

Also read: iPhone 13 new leaks: What will be new in 2021?

On Android

It’s much easier to download a YouTube video on an Android phone.

1. Open the browser and go to a third-party YouTube video download website.
2. Copy the link of the desired video from YouTube and paste it here.
3. Choose whichever quality you want to download it to.
4. Tap on Download and there you go!

Conclusion

These are the two basic ways of how to download any YouTube video on an iPhone or an Android device. I hope you were able to download and watch your favorite video on loop.