Play: Save Videos Watch Later

I read about this app on 9to5Mac but for some reason I didn't immediately download it. A few weeks ago I redownloaded it and oh my god why didn't I do this sooner?! I *needed* an app like this for so long!!! The tagging features, the ability to add notes, the ability to quickly add a video I come across without filling up my playlists, being able to search, being able to add multiple at once...I cannot stress how much of a life saver this app is. I'm ecstatic someone finally made it! Thank you!!!

It's a good example of an app designed to do one thing. Whether or not it is doing its one thing *well* depends a lot on your workflow. Don't expect to be able to add tags to video when adding them; don't expect any kind of advanced filtering or sorting. For example, you definitely can't filter/sort items that *do* have X tag(s) but *do not* have Y tag(s). You can't display items with X tag(s) but then sort or group items together with Y tag(s). Applying tags to items is probably one of the most annoying problems: You cannot select multiple items and assign tag(s) to all of them at once. It's even more frustrating that you cannot add tags while importing/adding items. It would be extremely nice to be able to select tags during import. It would be even nicer to have the option to automatically apply whatever tags are currently used as a filter when adding new items so that users don't have to reset their filters, go back to the full list of items, apply tags to items (one by one), and then set up filters again. That isn't a great user experience. However, the app is new and the developer seems eager to keep adding features and improving the app. It really is useful, and the many features that *are* implemented are pretty well thought out. I'll definitely be adjust my rating as the app continues to improve. Thankfully, this is exactly the kind of app I feel confident *will* continue to improve.

This app fits the way I often save videos to watch later *perfectly.* I find stuff around the web during my day-to-day, want to save it somewhere, then watch a lot of it on my Apple TV while on lunch or in the evening. I save stuff to Play from the share sheet, turn on my Apple TV, and all these links are just there immediately. 👨🏻‍🍳’s 💋 Play rules, get it!

Very polished for such a young app, with a nice, simple (I mean that in the best way) design. The setting for deleting videos after watching them is a GREAT touch. One more thing that would bring this app closer to perfection? An Apple TV companion. Obviously only for watching, but I’d love to be able to pick up my queue from there and watch on the big screen. If that feature was added, it would be my long-awaited replacement to my *most* missed iOS (and I’ve had an iPhone ever since the first model) app of all time. That app—which I won’t specifically name— similarly was/is a “watch later” video queue that you could add to through a share extension. It was its Apple TV counterpart that took it to the next level for me, because I much rather catch up on my videos from the couch over any other alternative. I really, really, really, really hope this is under consideration and a possibility for the future!😉

This app allows you to save and categorize a playlist of web videos for a viewing at later time. It has a great interface and widgets. It is constantly being improved to include more video sources. And one can always copy and paste the web address into Play. I couldn’t be happier with an app.

I'm so impressed not only by the app itself, but the rapid pace of development of the app with key new features. Lovely and easy to use. One reviewer complained about not being able to resize Play to be 1/3 of their screen. Yet I can easily do that on my laptop to accomplish just what they wanted. Thoughtful, clean design without bloat. I wish all apps were as useful and easy to use.

Love your app! One feature I am noticing missing is that the Share button does not include the start time in the URL. Since this is essentially equivalent to the Watch in Safari option, I’d love to see parity there :) This is because I specifically want the URL with timestamp so I can open it in Safari even when my default browser is not Safari.

It’s a very handy app, nice work and a bargain. One feature suggestion would be the ability to sort by tag. Edit: I realized my suggestion was not well explained. What I mean is a view option to display all tags, sorted by tag. So the first filter header is tag1, followed by videos with this tag; then a second header with tag2, followed by videos with that tag; etc.).

Firstly, thank for you creating such an app incredible! Being able to set videos aside so I don't get too distracted has been a massive time-saver. Moreover, the developer is approachable and open to feedback. I found a bug, and he was able locate to it and incorporate the fix into the next update. Massive kudos this to guy!

I can't rave enough about this app. I've moved all of my video consumption to Play on mobile and desktops, because it just does it right. New features added all the time to improve upon something that is already great. I don't really buy many apps or even do subs, but I could not miss this.

I think it’s really detestable that apps that you pay for can just suddenly add new features behind a (ridiculously priced) subscription. When you purchase an app there’s an expectation that it will continue to be worked on and improve overtime, and that you wouldn’t have to pay again and again to access those new improvements. I liked this dev because of MusicHarbor but the added subscription for Play makes me more hesitant to use their apps.

Quite honestly and truly. I got this app for free and would pretty much pay anything for it. Time and effort saved is immeasurable. Thank you for this gem. Now, months later… this App has truly evolved into something I would never give up. I feel guilty using this app for free.

This is a well made and useful app, and I'm definitely a fan of the dev (MusicHarbor and MusicBox are FANTASTIC). But... after reviewing my subscriptions, I realized this is one of the most expensive subscriptions I have and the value add just isn't there imo. Play is double what I pay yearly for my podcast app, triple the cost of my photo backup app, and only $5 less than the app I use to remotely manage my computer. The functionality gained vs the yearly cost just doesn't make sense (for me). The one time cost of purchasing the app is well worth it, but I'm opting to let my subscription expire for the time being. I hope to see more features added in the future that justify the subscription cost.

Stopped using the app within a couple weeks. Decided to try again to see if maybe it was tolerable. It is. No longer seeing the prompts to upgrade on any of my devices. Thank you. But still has some deficiencies. I believe most simply fall into the area of better discovery and more transparency - both of which might be addressed by a trial period. But even with these few issues, the app shows a lot of promise and I applaud the dev for taking on developing an app based on a Google platform - not unlike balancing spinning plates on board a small boat in a tropical storm.

This app is very nice. Super simple, and that is how I like it. A few things I would like to see: A sidebar on iPad, quicker tag editing, if i am filtering by "No Tags", when I add a tag, I am taken back to list view. I often want to add more than one tag to my untagged videos, but this app makes that impossible when the "No Tags" filter is active.

I was confused about not having the IOS share menu supported but the developer helped me understand how it's done and, in respons to me wanting share menu support on the Mac, he just released a share extension for Safari. Fast and great suppor for this product!

I’m still testing, so I may change this up, but very aggravatingly it doesn’t allow you to save shows from HBO — and there’s no way to create a placeholder or a note as a reminder. Maybe my thinking is off, but I want to use this as a reminder app, so needing a second app to store HBO links seems absurd - especially since I paid for this one.

I’m already in love. You should charge a lot more for this app :P I did find that the tutorial screen didn’t automatically go away on a fresh install. I had to quit and relaunch the app. Thanks for doing this!

Amazing. The new way to watch and sort all your videos, regardless of where they are from. Please fix tag folders on Mac (they don't work at all and you need to remove the folders on your iPhone to use your tags inside the folders) and this is a 5* 100%. Thanks!

This app fills a need I didn’t realize was there, but once you start using it it’s quite helpful! A little rough around the edges in some places, especially the macOS app, but being able to easily manage saved videos across devices makes it all worth it.

Works Great! My only suggestion is to add the ability to reorder tags! Right now, you have to delete them to to reorder them which is a big pain. Other than that, love this app and hope it keeps improving.

I was looking for an app to save a video to watch later off line. This app does NOT do this. I can understand that it was not its intent to download videos, BUT then the description should make this unambiguously clear, especially given the title in the app store is, "SAVE videos watch later". I should not have to pay $3 to find out what it can and cannot do. It gets 1 star for a negligent description.

Seamless, simple, clean way to manage videos I want to watch from channels I follow to random things I want to save for later. So nice to have it on the AppleTV too! Worth the download and premium.

I'm a big fan of Play and will continue to use it, but on macOS, the app is a little rough. I've never encountered any problem that can't be solved by force quitting, and as soon as occasional freezing goes away, will update to five stars

This app is so good for such a young app. Very stable. Has a lot of potential. I think the app is worth well over $1.99.

This app has a steep learning curve. It assumes that you have a command of iOS functions. The instructions for the app is as clear as mud, but once you figure it out the app works as advertised.

At three doleros, this doesn't cost enough. Please stay in business. I'd pay six bucks. Heck, do a $5/year subscription. Or even $3/year.

The app worked for about a day. I saved several videos for later. Now for the past two days when I go in to scroll through the list the app pinwheels for eternity and cannot be used. There are also plenty of features this app could utilize for the price and does not. The tags are extremely limited for organization.

Super buggy. Random crashes, drag and drop frequently doesn't work. It does sync well across the various platforms. So when you can add items on your Mac, they do show up on your Apple TV. But right now, it fights you quite a bit.

For some reason the developer has decided that paying $3 for the app is not enough to actually get the full functionality of the app. You will be required to also purchase a $20/yr subscription. Pick one strategy, freemium and subscription or paid app. Makes no sense. Will be reaching out to Apple for a refund. Not worth a yearly subscription imo

It's really the only missing feature. A simple way to right-click a video and add it to Play would be so helpful.

Love the app! I would love to be able to save TT videos to the app - they can be up to 10 minutes long

A beautiful app that I wish I could use, but it will not sync to your other devices by using the share sheet etc. you must open the actual app afterwards to have the sync work.

I wish the app would let me organize my links. Instead of simple bunching them all up in one page. Other than that it’s a great app.

This little app works perfectly! It is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for doing this. God Bless our developers!

I like what the app does right now. I wish you would also support RSS feed, so videos would get added automatically.

Heard about this app on a podcast and couldn’t be happier to support its development.

5 stars for the iOS app. The 6th star for the tvOS app! T-V-O-S!!! OMG thank you so much for doing this.

Thank you very much!

No clear directions to use it and once watch it cannot watch it again

It errors out when I try and add a playlist. Hard to get it to sync across devices. Wish you could play all of the episodes in a channel without having to do stuff after each video. It really fills a needs, just wish it was more solid.

I love this developers apps, but I'm confused why this was a paid app for $2.99 but seemed to lack any funcationality unless you pay for subscription.

Love this app, it makes it easier to procrastinate. Ha ha. Seriously, it's nice. Get it.

1. Wish I could make the app window on the Mac app more compact by: a. Hiding the Detail window by default, b. Having a customizable toolbar/sidebar, and c. Having a drop-down toolbar button for tags. 2. Safari extension/shortcut to add link to Play app.

this app and the care and attention of its developer is the absolute bomb. go marcos go!

Seems like it could be a nice app, but it can’t play the videos in the app. This is especially bewildering, given that the app’s name is literally “Play”.

Please fix the widget tags in iPadOS 17. For some reason the tag filters just aren’t working anymore.

Not crazy about this. A lot of manual work involved. I’m a YouTube junkie but even transferring a small amount of data took much energy and time. There’s also a bit of dishonest marketing here… First, this app is most optimal on the desktop/iPad (with updated iOS systems) rather than your phone because you can’t otherwise upload multiple playlists, efficiently anyway. Secondly, the app’s most useful feature of seeing new videos from your favorite channels is behind an additional paywall of $20/yr, or $3 monthly. So at bare minimum what you end up with, after buying entry into the app, is a library manager for already saved content with no fresh feed updates. What I desired most when downloading this was help managing my YT library but this is too isolated from the YT app to actually help with that. I’d have to go back and forth to update it and where’s the fun in that? I do respect this app though, as its one of a kind in YT video management, and is certainly sincere about what it offers. I just need a bit more from it to maximize my video watching time and initial data transfer. *********************************************** Developer notes for improvement: This app could really hike up its organizational features. MORE FRILLS, please. At the very least, the landing page should be centered around the latest vids from one’s channels (instead of going to a separate tab). It would be cool if the tags were called playlists since that’s what I imported them as. I also don’t know why the playlist name isn’t imported (more manual labor)! And, pleeeeease, it would be great to add a feature to mass import playlists… even if it’s just 5-10 at a time. I like the video notes feature but think it should be more prominently placed (maybe at the bottom where you can see the full text?) Also, a ‘like’ button perhaps instead of just a star rating system? Video topic tags should also be somehow auto-added from YouTube, especially since genre sections would be most sublime to put on the landing page, too. I also can’t tell whether I’ve watched the video on YT already. I suspect this requires access to my YT account (which you guys say apps aren’t authorized to do) but it was still a bummer to see my imported playlist and not see at glance what I’d already watched (…is there no way to access my watched history?) I would also like to know why a video fails to upload with playlist import. It currently doesn’t say which ones or why. In the ‘New from Creator,’ could you create that scrollable a-z list on the right? I found myself scrolling a long’s way down to find certain creators. Also, this is super random, but in the future could there be any way to filter out new vs. old channels? I ask because I know the younger channels need more support to keep going and I’d like to not forget about them. Lastly, one KILLER feature would be a curated viewing schedule (for each weekday). Reason being a lot of my faves post on specific days, and, of course, I’ll forget and it may take days for me to remember. It would be really cool to log on and go to whatever day, after assigning certain channels to it and be able to see their latest post. That would be DOPE!

I have moved all my YouTube queue management to Play and use tags to create dynamic playlists. However, I find that there is no good way to easily flip between tag views of watched vs I watched vs all videos, making it hard to see what I haven’t watched yet. Please add an app-wide easily accessible toggle to allow filtering a set of tagged videos for new vs watched videos. Thank you. @dev - appreciate the response and I’m aware of that button. But it frequently disappears when I’m moving between tag folders and has proven unreliable.

Some things that would make this a compelling alternative YouTube experience is a search feature (searching YouTube) and playback quality defaults (1080p,720p,360p). I feel like I might be missing this setting, but I wish there were various views and per-tag layout settings (like choosing a thumbnail grid for certain tags). A game-changing feature would be if this had a "podcast" setting/player, which could play a selection of videos audio-only to save data. Perhaps this could work almost like a "tag" to set certain added links to display and be played as an audio-only digest.