How to download YouTube Shorts on your phone

Craving your favourite YouTube Shorts offline? Well, you can actually save them straight to your smartphone in just a couple of minutes (and taps). YouTube Shorts, which is the company’s answer to the massively popular TikTok, offers a treasure trove of bite-sized content – from laugh-out-loud skits to mesmerizing dance routines. But unlike regular YouTube videos, there’s no built-in “save for later” button. 

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However, there are workarounds to save YouTube Shorts for offline viewing and depending on your preference, you can take advantage of either built-in functionalities or explore third-party applications. However, it’s important to remember that downloading content through third-party tools might go against YouTube’s terms of service. If that’s okay with you then, in this guide, we’ll walk you through how to download YouTube Shorts on your phone in 2 minutes.

How to download YouTube Shorts on your phone in 2 minutes

There are a couple of ways to download YouTube shorts to your phone, either directly from the YouTube app or from third-party websites or applications. The YouTube app comes with an in-built download feature that can be used to directly download videos, including Shorts inside the app. While this gets the job done, you won’t be able to share the actual downloaded video files with others externally. The process to download YT Shorts videos via YouTube on Android phones and iPhones is as follows:

Step 1: Launch the YouTube app on your smartphone.

Step 2: Now navigate to the YouTube Short you wish to download. Since there’s no dedicated download option within this UI, you’ll have to go to your account’s Watch History.

Step 3: To go to the Watch history section, press the ‘You’ tab present at the bottom.

Step 4: From here, tap the ‘3-dots’ button of the Short you wish to download.

Step 5: A ‘Download video‘ option will appear. Select it.

Step 6: Select the desired quality and hit ‘Download‘. YouTube video downloads are restricted to just 360p resolution while YouTube Premium subscribers can enjoy downloads of up to 1080p quality.

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The YT Short will begin downloading within the YouTube app. It’s worth mentioning that Shorts can only be downloaded via the Watch History section, unlike long videos that have a download button in the video player itself. So, if you have Watch History disabled, make sure to enable it if you wish to download and save YouTube Shorts on mobile.

How to download YouTube Shorts on Android or iPhone via third-party websites

Since YouTube doesn’t offer any native way to download Shorts directly to your smartphone’s internal storage, you will have to resort to third-party websites to save the videos onto your smartphone. Here’s how to download YouTube Shorts on Android or iPhone: 

Step 1: Open the YouTube app on your smartphone.

Step 2: Visit the Shorts section or open any Shorts video of your choice from the home tab or via Search.

Step 3: Click on the ‘Share‘ icon present on the bottom right.

Step 4: Now go ahead and choose ‘Copy link‘.

Step 5: After this, open a browser such as Chrome or Firefox on your phone

Step 6: Visit SSYouTube.com and paste the YouTube Shorts video link on the ‘Paste link here’ box

Step 7: Hit Search and scroll down to see the YouTube Short video formats available for download

Step 8: Tap the ‘Download’ button next to the format to save the video on your device.

Most YT Shorts downloading websites, including the one mentioned above, can’t download videos in 108p resolution with audio. This means you’ll need to download the audio (.MP3) file separately. For a smoother experience, consider YouTube Shorts Downloader. This tool lets you save unlimited Shorts directly to your phone, with downloads available in up to 1080p resolution and audio included.