Seal video downloader for Android
Ranked 2 of 4 video downloaders by recommenders
Android app that wraps yt-dlp in a simple interface, and people prefer it to other mobile front ends for downloading videos. Critics say it sometimes fails on some videos.
Android app that wraps yt-dlp in a simple interface, and people prefer it to other mobile front ends for downloading videos. Critics say it sometimes fails on some videos.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 57%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Friendly mobile interface for yt-dlp
“Seal (GUI for yt-dlp) + BravePipe (fork of NewPipe, integrated Sponsorblock) for Android”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “How Google helped destroy adoption of RSS feeds (2023)” “Seal, a facade for yt-downloader that allows me to break the walls of social networks”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “F-Droid 2.0” “great UIs around yt-dlp on mobile, for instance Seal”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “YouTube blocks background video playback on Brave and other Browsers” - Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “NewPipe: YouTube client without vertical videos and algorithmic feed”
- Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Termux”
Preferred over other downloaders
“For downloads, I prefer Seal - a wrapper for yt-dlp.”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “NewPipe: YouTube client without vertical videos and algorithmic feed” “Even simpler is https://github.com/JunkFood02/Seal”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Termux”
Other video downloaders people recommend
The three most recommended other video downloaders, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| yt-dlp | 153 | 25 | 86% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Seal video downloader for AndroidThis page | 12 | 9 | 57% | 5 | — | — |
| TubeArchivist | 7 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
| OpenBrief | 5 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
21 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Seal, a facade for yt-downloader that allows me to break the walls of social networks”
“her piece of my key is dead, because that piece was locked to the old phone”
“It's Apple's Cloud Kit container so they can delete or deny access to any of it... which is a real fault.”
“yeah you have to also make sure the software exists so they can check in.”
“this seems dependent on Apple's ecosystem”
“there's no middleman, but also I need to log in to your app regularly to avoid being declared dead?”
“There's also no server at all besides a free Cloudflare static site.”
“Seal (GUI for yt-dlp) + BravePipe (fork of NewPipe, integrated Sponsorblock) for Android”
“their "control of a domain" scheme is unlikely to clear that bar”
“It's no better than a self-signed SSL cert or putting your own PGP key on a document manually.”
“I don't like the idea of this using bitcoin”
“Loved it until I saw its using Bitcoin.”
“Checkboxes are required to be checked (no making them optional)”
“It’s a neat proof of concept, but it’s hard to see the organizations that care about certified documents adopting this.”
“I'd be very careful with this. Looks to me like an invented standard”
“I like that you kept a lot of the same commands/naming/syntax from LetsEncrypt.”
“I like that you kept a lot of the same commands/naming/syntax from LetsEncrypt”
“Unfortunately it started to fail to download some videos.”
“For downloads, I prefer Seal - a wrapper for yt-dlp.”
“Even simpler is https://github.com/JunkFood02/Seal”
“great UIs around yt-dlp on mobile, for instance Seal”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.