Downloading a YouTube video to your iPhone is quick and easy via the Assignments app. iPhoned shows you how to set the shortcut.
Downloading a video has been possible in YouTube itself for some time, but getting a movie into the Camera Roll of your iPhone is a hassle. The new iOS 12 Assignments app changes that. Thanks to the shortcuts you can build into this, it is now possible to download a YouTube video to your iPhone at the touch of a button.
→ Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12: This is how you make Siri smarter and more useful to you
The Shortcuts app was introduced in iOS 12 along with Siri Shortcuts. This feature makes Siri a lot smarter. By associating shortcuts from the Shortcuts app with a voice command, you can have Siri perform all kinds of tasks with a single word or phrase.
This is how you download a YouTube video to your iPhone
A shortcut fan built the handy solution to quickly download YouTube videos and put them online. The videos will be downloaded to your iPhone and automatically saved to Photos.
Especially useful if you want to watch YouTube videos offline, but don’t have a YouTube Premium subscription. Downloading in YouTube is only possible with such a paid account. You can set and activate the shortcut as follows.
- Don’t have the Assignments app on your iPhone yet? Download it then first;
- On your iPhone, click this link and click on ‘Get assignment’. Tap ‘Open’ when you are asked to open the shortcut with Assignments and confirm again with ‘Get assignment’;
- Open YouTube and find the video you want to download;
- Tap on ‘Share’ in the video and then on ‘More’ under the heading ‘Share a link’;
- Select the Assignments app here. If it does not yet appear as an option, first tap ‘More’ and tick ‘Assignments’;
- In the screen that appears, select the shortcut ‘Download YouTube’;
- Once the download is complete, you can choose to share or save the video to your photo album. If you choose the latter, you will now find the downloaded Youtube video in Photos.
Because you have to share the url via YouTube for this shortcut, it is unfortunately not possible to link a voice command for Siri to it. You can do this with a variety of other shortcuts, such as those found in the Gallery of the Assignments app.
Want more useful Siri Shortcuts? Get inspired for Siri Shortcuts with these 6 examples.
Check out more iOS 12 tips
- Tip: turn on automatic updates on your iPhone or iPad (7/8/2019)
- You can do all this with the new TV app on your iPhone and iPad (5/16/2019)
- Tip: with this icon in iOS 12.2 you can search faster in Safari (4/5/2019)
- This way you can adjust grouped notifications per app on your iPhone (10-2-2019)
- iPhone XR tip: this is how you make Haptic Touch work faster or slower (18-12-2018)