Want to listen to YouTube on your phone? Offline? With the screen turned off? Then the improved Youtube2Audiobook has all you need.

How to Listen to YouTube in Style

There is a sheer abundance of audiobooks available on YouTube; even some from my reading list. However, I personally prefer to listen to audiobooks on my phone with the screen turned off.

Ideally, on an app that also remembers the playback position of each audiobook, in case I need to jump to another one. Oh, and with the audiobooks downloaded onto my phone as well, in case I’m offline. Some spots can have quite flaky internet connection.

In the spirit of Sellotape engineering, all of this can be achieved with two readily available simple Bash scripts and a free Android app. All it takes are the following three simple steps.

Step 1: Download Video as Audiobook

The improved YouTube2Audiobook Bash script now takes a YouTube link or a playlist and downloads everything as Mp3s to your machine; see Continuously Listen to YouTube Audiobooks on Your Phone for details and the full list of options.

Simply clone the YouTube2Audiobook repository and download the YouTube video on https://youtu.be/WRbalzuvms4 as an audiobook via

./yt2ab.sh -u https://youtu.be/WRbalzuvms4

Step 2: Transfer Audiobook to Phone

Now, transfer the audiobook downloaded in step 1 to your phone using the Web-Serve-This-Directory Bash script; see “Transfer Files to Your Mobile By Scanning a QR Code” for details and the full list of options.

Simply clone the Web-Serve-This-Directory repository, move the audiobook downloaded in step 1 to that directory, and start the web server on port 8000 via

./web-serve-this-directory.sh -p 8000

Now, open the URL displayed in the terminal on your phone (or scan the QR code) and download the audiobook.

Step 3: Listen to Audiobook with App

With the audiobook on your phone, all that remains to do, is play it on an app that remembers the playback position of each audiobook. Even during restarts and reboots. Simple Audio Book Player Free does exactly that. And it’s free.

Simply download the app, open it up, and navigate the folder selector dialogue to the Download folder at /root/sdcard/Download. It should now pick up the audiobook transferred in step 2.

Happy listening!

So, How Do You Listen to YouTube?!

While the above Worx for Me!™ when it comes to listening to YouTube, you may have an alternative or better way.

Think this is all rubbish, incomplete, massively overcomplicated, or simply the wrong tool for the job?! Feel free to leave a comment or contribute to the Git repositories YouTube2Audiobook and Web-Serve-This-Directory or reach out to me on LinkedIn and teach me something new!

As always, prove me wrong and I’ll buy you a pint!

Disclaimer

By using the software in this article or following any of its suggestions, you agree to always respect the copyright laws in your country and all other jurisdictions that may apply.

Moreover, you also agree to always respect the Terms of Service of the provider you are downloading content from. The author of this article or software is in no way responsible for any potential damages, liabilities, or losses.