I just came across this amazing app. Idk much about yt-dlp but the app seems to fully support it, even with custom commands and stuff. Of course I tested it and it worked well (with just 1 video fail to download out of approximately 10). Though by default it seems to download videos without audio so make sure to click the small "Audio" button in the download menu and enable it.

I recently saw someone recommending using a privacy respecting frontend for searching videos and downloading them instead of watching them online for better privacy and consistency so I hope someone will find it useful... or just use it to download videos because that's what most people do anyways.

Also I hope I'm not copying anyone's post here. My Lemmy client doesn't support search so I can't check if there are any posts about this app.

P. S. Excuse my usage of the foul phrase "YouTube downloader" to describe this app. I just wanted to make it easier for less tech savvy people to understand what this app is and how it can be useful for them.

top 26 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 34 points 2 months ago

F-Droid link for the lazy: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.junkfood.seal/

Definitely going to check this out. I've been using yt-dlp via command line in Termux but that experience is less than ideal.

[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 2 months ago

It's a really good app, been using it for a few years now on and off. Very user friendly interface.

[–] abk16@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've been using YTDLnis (app based on yt-dlp) and find it superior with many more features to Seal

[–] Player2@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Agreed, tried to use Seal just now and it would crash (audio only from youtube). YTDLnis worked perfectly on the same video

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This is hugely useful, thx. Libretube and Newpipe have become almost worthless lately due to google's crackdowns.

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

Invidious works well for me. Try it.

[–] VerPoilu@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 months ago

GrayJay is pretty good!

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago

There's an Android fork of FreeTube that's still working well.

[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What is the advantage to Newpipe? On the PC I know why yt-dlp is king, but as an app?

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Newpipe is a very different kind of app. This one is a downloader. You can't watch YouTube videos using it.

[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Yes, exactly, you can do both with Newpipe. So what is the advantage of this?

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Better UI, many more downloading related features and options, probably less trackable connections to YouTube and an ability to download from other websites.

[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ah, got it, thank you. Now I just need a source of YouTube links to download on my phone :D

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

You can use any source you like. You can even use it to check random YouTube links you find in articles and stuff with probably less tracking too (but you might have to modify the links to the standard form).

[–] Walking_coffin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The quality of the tool. Newpipe is mainly here to watch content. Sure, it has the ability to download said content but not in a granular manner.

Its like climbing mountains in cheap sandals or doing digital paintings in paint. Yt-dlp has a lot of options to get exactly what you want. Seal gives a simple interface which in itself has a bit more than what Newpipe has. The real power of Seal comes from the custom commands. Said commands being the ones you would use in your terminal or scripts using yt-dlp directly without a frontend.

To top it off, Seal can download everything yt-dlp allows you to download. It is not limited to the few sites that Newpipe support.

[–] VerPoilu@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 months ago

You can download videos and cut off sponsored moments in the video with sponsorblock.

[–] corvus@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Does it support playlists or at least a list of videos in the video link?

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

Yes it does.

[–] newcockroach@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Yes, u can also save playlists in a playlist named folder in either audio or video formats with some personalised settings too:) try it out once

[–] scorp@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago

i use Revanced + Seal

[–] Kumikommunism@hexbear.net 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

YTDLnis is better, in my opinion.

https://github.com/deniscerri/ytdlnis

Maybe looks a bit less "clean" (still looks great though) but the downloading menu has every option in an easy place. I really don't like how Seal hides all the important options for the sake of simplicity.

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

That's awesome. Just installed via obtanium. Thanks for the suggestion. Love it even has a terminal.

[–] Scrappy@feddit.nl 4 points 2 months ago

Thanks for sharing! Am going on a flight later today and this came with the right timing :)

[–] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Cool an Android altervative

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 points 2 months ago

Thanks, my daughter wanted to download something from YouTube the other day.

[–] VintageGenious@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Works well combined with revanced