The trend of storing videos locally appears to have lost its relevance in mainstream media consumption, as many have moved to online streaming services like YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, etc. to get their fix of videos.
This behavior shift can be attributed to higher internet speeds, cheap subscriptions, and convenience. However, there are still some situations where one would prefer to keep a copy of a video for personal use.
Things like DIY guides, cooking tutorials, installation walkthroughs, and educational courses are the most likely videos one would need to store for easy offline access (even with the creator's consent).
Or, just downloading your YouTube videos for archiving purposes.
Sadly, platforms like YouTube hinder this functionality by providing subpar quality downloads for free and making users pay for a subscription to download in better resolutions.
Plus, signing up for a paid plan for just downloading videos does not justify the cost if you don't have use for its other features.
In this article, we will be taking a look at Seal, an Android app for downloading YouTube videos that offers a range of features.
Seal: Download YouTube Videos On The Go
Seal's YouTube video download process.
Powered by yt-dlp, Seal is a Kotlin-based app that is distributed under GPL 3.0 and is supported by over 200 contributors, who work together to keep the app in tip-top shape.
It features an interesting logo of a seal that looks as if it's judging you, knowing all your secrets (we mustn't talk about what happened on December 31, 1999).
Using the app itself is quite straightforward. Just paste a YouTube video link into the text box and click on the download logo below. Thereafter, you can customize the download settings, allowing you to adjust the video quality, select audio options, and choose to download the entire playlist, subtitles, or the thumbnail.
Seal's YouTube video download functionality in action.
Following that, a new download page will pop up, which gives a lot more control over the video and audio for the file, with the flexibility to merge different video and audio tracks into a single video.
You can even rename the video before the download begins, and you can separately view/download the thumbnail for it too. Interestingly, when I downloaded one of our recent videos that had added subtitles, Seal downloaded both the auto-generated one and the uploaded one.
When playing the video, I just switched the subtitle track to the uploaded one, as the auto-generated one was a mess (no fault of Seal). Similarly, the download progress can be seen on the main page of the app or from the notifications panel if you have given Seal the relevant permission.
Seal runs one download at a time, offers a handy downloads list, and supports themes.
In my testing, I found out that Seal couldn't run more than one download at a time. But that's okay. I won't complain about this small thing.
The Downloads page is handy to keep track of your videos, and the app also has really cool theming options (Look & feel inside the settings menu). It can be set to follow the wallpaper, or you could choose from the many provided color combinations. There is support for dark mode too.
Seal's general settings and custom command menu.
The settings menu also has a dedicated place for yt-dlp, where the auto-update frequency and the update channel can be selected. There are also options, such as enabling incognito mode for the download history, enabling SponsorBlock, running custom commands, and more.
Install Seal
The latest release of Seal can be found on F-Droid, and the APK/source code can be found on GitHub. If the app is something you really like, you can consider contributing to the project.
Suggested Read 📖
Abhishek Prakash
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