PodTube is a simple application which interacts with YouTube and has the following features:
The main purpose of PodTube is to allow you to automatically download videos from your favorite channels at a specified time, so you can watch them later, when you don't have access to WiFi, or internet altogether.
PodTube is completely free and contains no ads.
Screenshots:
Troubleshooting:
How can I get video/playlist/channel ID so I can use them in PodTube?
You need to open the official YouTube app, navigate to the video or channel you want, then click on the sharing arrow, or the three dots, select COPY LINK and paste it into the ID field in PodTube. If you don't see a COPY LINK option for the playlists, select one of the offered text apps, which will paste the link into them, and then copy it from there. (I will look into direct integration into the share menu in the future versions of PodTube so you won't have to copy it like this).
I am unable to download onto a removable SD card
Newer versions of Android (KitKat and later I think) won't let apps write onto the removable SD with standard permissions, however Android will allow the app to write into a directory it owns on the removable SD, which for PodTube is located in sdcardroot/Android/media/com.shadoapps.podtube. If you press Autodetect safe media directory button it will be selected for you (unless you are out of free space). You should have no problem however, with selecting and writing into any directory in the built in storage.
I have a problem with playing the downloaded files
YouTube serves videos in several formats. Downloaded video files will usually come in an mp4 format and audio files in a wav format (unless you select the lowest quality). In order to play them, your player app has to support these formats. If you can't open the downloaded files in the player you use, try one, which supports the format you are trying to play. Personally, I use the VLC player (free in the app store) which can play anything that YouTube serves.
I cannot select the specific quality for downloaded videos, or specify detailed download options
PodTube is not intended to be a full fledged YouTube downloader, it is a podcast maker, which simply grabs the highest quality streams available (or lowest if you want to save data and select that option)
How can I trigger the podcast downloads automatically at given intervals?
I recommend you use Tasker for this. Click on the Tasker icon inside PodTube for more info.
The download link contains several APKs, which one do I use?
The one that matches your phone's architecture. If you don't know what that is, then install the com.shadoapps.podtube.apk, which is universal.
If I install a new version of PodTube over the old one, will I lose all my settings?
No.
If I remove some of the downloaded videos, will PodTube download them again, during the next sync?
No. PodTube saves the list of IDs for videos it downloaded, and won't download them again. If you wish to download the removed videos again, then go to channel edit, and purge all channel data.
Extra credits:
Youtube library: Tyrrrz from Github
App icon: Freepik from Flaticon
Downloads here:
PodTube 1.3.0
PodTube 1.2.0
(Sorry, it won't let me post a clickable link)
Changelog
v1.3.0
- Add option to automatically open videos activity after Podtube starts
- Integrate Podtube into Youtube's sharing menu (You no longer have to use the copy-link way, you can just select Podtube directly from the app list instead)
- UI bugfixes
- Download videos or playlists from YouTube
- Automatically download new videos added to selected channels
- Download only audio from the videos (saves lots of data and space)
- Skip videos longer than specified duration
- Support for Tasker, allowing you to download videos, react to downloads, or schedule a podcast sync with a Tasker task
The main purpose of PodTube is to allow you to automatically download videos from your favorite channels at a specified time, so you can watch them later, when you don't have access to WiFi, or internet altogether.
PodTube is completely free and contains no ads.
Screenshots:
Troubleshooting:
How can I get video/playlist/channel ID so I can use them in PodTube?
You need to open the official YouTube app, navigate to the video or channel you want, then click on the sharing arrow, or the three dots, select COPY LINK and paste it into the ID field in PodTube. If you don't see a COPY LINK option for the playlists, select one of the offered text apps, which will paste the link into them, and then copy it from there. (I will look into direct integration into the share menu in the future versions of PodTube so you won't have to copy it like this).
I am unable to download onto a removable SD card
Newer versions of Android (KitKat and later I think) won't let apps write onto the removable SD with standard permissions, however Android will allow the app to write into a directory it owns on the removable SD, which for PodTube is located in sdcardroot/Android/media/com.shadoapps.podtube. If you press Autodetect safe media directory button it will be selected for you (unless you are out of free space). You should have no problem however, with selecting and writing into any directory in the built in storage.
I have a problem with playing the downloaded files
YouTube serves videos in several formats. Downloaded video files will usually come in an mp4 format and audio files in a wav format (unless you select the lowest quality). In order to play them, your player app has to support these formats. If you can't open the downloaded files in the player you use, try one, which supports the format you are trying to play. Personally, I use the VLC player (free in the app store) which can play anything that YouTube serves.
I cannot select the specific quality for downloaded videos, or specify detailed download options
PodTube is not intended to be a full fledged YouTube downloader, it is a podcast maker, which simply grabs the highest quality streams available (or lowest if you want to save data and select that option)
How can I trigger the podcast downloads automatically at given intervals?
I recommend you use Tasker for this. Click on the Tasker icon inside PodTube for more info.
The download link contains several APKs, which one do I use?
The one that matches your phone's architecture. If you don't know what that is, then install the com.shadoapps.podtube.apk, which is universal.
If I install a new version of PodTube over the old one, will I lose all my settings?
No.
If I remove some of the downloaded videos, will PodTube download them again, during the next sync?
No. PodTube saves the list of IDs for videos it downloaded, and won't download them again. If you wish to download the removed videos again, then go to channel edit, and purge all channel data.
Extra credits:
Youtube library: Tyrrrz from Github
App icon: Freepik from Flaticon
Downloads here:
PodTube 1.3.0
Code:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S0EaS4yych9Avp4MJ9UoNvWyL5BDZHow/view?usp=sharing
Code:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18EW4O-sr74Y7O_bMOiFNPi_SzJFX-nR9/view?usp=sharingChangelog
v1.3.0
- Add option to automatically open videos activity after Podtube starts
- Integrate Podtube into Youtube's sharing menu (You no longer have to use the copy-link way, you can just select Podtube directly from the app list instead)
- UI bugfixes
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