Private beta
Paste a link. Get the file.
A native Mac app for saving video and audio from YouTube. Free, private, and it runs entirely on your machine.
You are on the list.
One last step: there is a confirmation email waiting for you. Click the link inside and you are in.
app-hero.mp4 ou app-hero.webm ou app-hero.png
Screen recording: paste a link, the capsule fills, the file is saved. Around 8 seconds, looping.
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A real Mac app.
Written in Swift, not a web page in a wrapper. It opens straight away, follows your system theme, waits in the menu bar, and lets you drag a finished file into any other app.
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The menu bar item open, a download running. Include a bit of the desktop so it reads as macOS.
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The Settings window. It shows there is no account and nothing to sign in to.
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Nothing leaves your Mac.
There is no account to make and no server of mine in the middle. The app talks to YouTube to fetch what you asked for, and to GitHub to see whether a newer version exists. That is the entire list.
Or you could use a website.
Nothing here is a dig at anyone in particular. These are just the things a site has to do because it is a site.
- Where your link goes
- A siteTo a server you do not control, which has to open it for you.
- To be downloadedNowhere. The download runs on your Mac.
- Who pays for it
- A siteYou do, with ads or a subscription. Someone has to pay for the bandwidth.
- To be downloadedNobody. There is no bandwidth to pay for.
- What quality you get
- A siteA site has to keep its own copy, so it offers a short menu of whatever it decided to store.
- To be downloadedEvery format YouTube publishes. You pick.
- How the file reaches you
- A siteDownloaded twice: once to their servers, then again to you.
- To be downloadedStraight into your Downloads folder.
- What limits the speed
- A siteWhatever share of their servers you are given.
- To be downloadedYour own connection.
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The Network Access screen, QR code visible, server started.
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remote-phone.png
Safari on iPhone, on the page served by the app.
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Your Mac does the work.
Scan the QR code and TBD opens on your phone, over your own Wi-Fi. Paste a link there, the file lands on the Mac.
And the small things.
The parts you only notice when they are missing.
Playlists
Tick what you want, the queue does the rest.
Resume
A quit or a dropped connection picks up at the same byte.
H.264 and AAC
QuickTime opens every file, without a conversion step.
A library
Drag a file out of it, or press space to preview.
Option-Command-V
Downloads whatever link is in your clipboard, from anywhere.
yt-dlp, kept current
YouTube changes its defenses often. The engine updates itself, so links keep working.
Free. Not free for now.
There is no paid tier waiting in a drawer. Here is why that is a promise I can actually keep.
Nothing to run
No servers, no bandwidth bill, no infrastructure. Your Mac does the work, so there is no cost to pass on to you.
Nothing to sign up for
No account, no trial that expires, no plan to compare. You install the app and it works.
Open source when it ships
The repository opens the day the app leaves private beta. Until then, the beta is the only way to see it work.
If it ends up saving you time, there is a Ko-fi link inside the app. That is the whole business model, and it is optional.
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A photo of you. Portrait, plain background, nothing formal.
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I edit video. I got tired of waiting.
Most weeks I need something off YouTube: a sound effect, a piece of music, a clip to cut into an edit. And I like having a few things to watch on a plane.
Every site I used made me sit through an ad, then wait out a countdown, and then handed me whichever quality it felt like giving me. Never the good one.
Then I found yt-dlp. It does all of it, properly. It is also a command line tool, so every download meant opening a terminal and remembering flags.
So I gave it a window. That is the whole app.
Elior, byelior.com
Come and break it.
The app is finished enough to be useful and rough enough to need you.
- What you get
- An early build of the app. Everything works, but it has not met enough different Macs yet.
- What I ask
- Tell me when something breaks. One line is enough. No form to fill in, no survey.
- When
- Invites go out in small batches, so that every report gets an answer.
You are on the list.
One last step: there is a confirmation email waiting for you. Click the link inside and you are in.
Questions,
answered.
How much does it cost?
Nothing, and it stays that way. If it saves you time and you feel like saying thanks, there is a Ko-fi link inside the app.
Which Macs can run it?
macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple Silicon. The app is not on the App Store, so it installs with a single Homebrew command.
Does it work with sites other than YouTube?
Not today. The URL field only accepts YouTube links, and anything else is turned away with a clear message rather than a silent failure.
Do I need to install anything else?
No. yt-dlp and ffmpeg ship inside the app, so it works the moment it opens. Nothing to install in a terminal, nothing to keep updated by hand.
So this is a front end for yt-dlp?
Yes, and it says so on purpose. yt-dlp is the best downloader there is, and it is a command line tool. This app is the window it never had, plus a library, a queue and a way to drive it from your phone.
How does it update?
It checks for its own updates and for updates to the download engine, then installs them in the background. Both checks can be turned off in settings.
Is anything collected about me?
No accounts, no telemetry, no analytics. Your library and your settings stay in your own Application Support folder.
Anything else, ask on Instagram.