📥 YouDL

🇫🇷 Français

YouDL is a powerful, minimalist browser extension that serves as a GUI for yt-dlp. It allows you to download media from virtually any website (YouTube, SoundCloud, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and 1000+ others) directly in Audio (MP3) or Video (MP4) format.

✨ Features

• Universal Compatibility: Supports every site supported by yt-dlp.
• Dynamic Previews: Automatically fetches video thumbnails, titles, and duration.
• Quality Selection: Choose between high-bitrate MP3 or specific Video resolutions (1080p, 720p).
• Premium UI: Modern Glassmorphism design with smooth animations.
• Advanced Trimmer: Lossless trimming (-c copy) with a premium interface, interactive waveform, vinyl visualizer for audio, editable timecodes, and magnetic snapping.
• Custom Settings: Change your download directory or import local media files for trimming via the native Windows file picker.
• Native Integration: Works directly from your browser toolbar.
• Fast & Reliable: Leverages the power of yt-dlp backend.

⚠️ Why isn't this on the Chrome Web Store?

YouDL cannot be published on official stores (Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons) for two main reasons:

1. Google's YouTube Policy: Chrome Store strictly forbids any extension that allows downloading videos from YouTube. Any tool that facilitates this is automatically banned.
2. Native Messaging Requirement: To provide high-performance downloading and lossless trimming, YouDL requires a "Native Host" (a Python script) to interact with yt-dlp and ffmpeg on your system. Official stores only allow standalone extensions and do not permit external scripts or local system bridges for security and policy reasons.

This is why YouDL is distributed via GitHub Releases and must be installed manually.

🛠️ Installation

1. Prerequisites

The tool requires Python and FFmpeg installed on your PC:

• Python 3.10+ — python.org (check "Add Python to PATH" during installation)
• FFmpeg — ffmpeg.org or install via terminal:

  winget install ffmpeg
  

2. Download YouDL

1. Go to the Releases page.
2. Download the latest YouDL-vX.X.X-chrome.zip (or firefox for Firefox).
3. Extract the zip anywhere on your PC.

3. Install the extension

1. Open your browser (Chrome, Brave, Edge, etc.).
2. Go to chrome://extensions (or brave://extensions, edge://extensions).
3. Enable "Developer mode" (top right).
4. Click "Load unpacked".
5. Select the extension folder inside the extracted zip.

4. Register the Native Host

1. In the extensions page, find YouDL and copy its ID (e.g. dfegdbmppdkmaif...).
2. Open the host folder from the extracted zip.
3. Double-click install_host.bat.
4. Paste the extension ID when prompted and press Enter.

✅ Done! YouDL is ready to use.

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🚀 Usage

1. Go to any supported website (YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.).
2. Click the YouDL icon in your browser toolbar.
3. Choose "Download MP3" or "Download MP4".
4. Your files will be saved in Downloads/YouDL/.

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🏗️ Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Development mode (with HMR)
npm run dev

# Production build
npm run build            # Chrome
npm run build:firefox    # Firefox

# Lint & format
npm run lint
npm run format

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Made with ❤️ by anthogoz