Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to download YouTube videos to watch any time you want to? Did you know you can use your Android device to download those videos? With an app called TubeMate you can grab videos from YouTube and keep them saved locally for off-line viewing.
The caveat is that TubeMate is not found in the Android Market. You’ve got several options for installing it though. First, you can find it on Amazon’s appstore. You have to have the Amazon Appstore App installed on your device (Amazon’s instructions for installing the app). I know, the Amazon Appstore is only available in the United States but that’s okay because there’s a way around it.
You can also go to tubemate.net to download it directly. You’ll still need to enable installing third-party apps like in the Amazon Appstore instructions. (settings/applications/unknown sources).
Using TubeMate is as easy as using the regular YouTube app. You can easily browse videos.
When you find the video you want, you can choose to either download or watch the video online.
When you download the MP4 or MP3 file, you’ll see the progress in your Android’s status bar.
When you save a video, the MP4 file is saved on your SD card in the “video” folder and any MP3 files you download end up in the “MP3″ folder. This is the default and can be changed.
As you can tell, you not only can download the videos as MP4 files but you can also save just the audio as an MP3 file. Also the TubeMate app is so easy to use that anyone can figure out how to download stuff from YouTube.
Pros
- Simple to use
- Similar to using the regular YouTube app
- Saves both video and audio or just the audio
- Easy to keep track of download process
- Easy to find downloaded files
Cons
Not found in the Android Market. This is simple to get around by enabling installing apps from third party sites and by going to the Amazon Appstore.
Conclusion
If you want a simple but effective app for downloading video and audio from YouTube, TubeMate is the perfect app.
