Save the Viral Tweets: How to Download Twitter Videos (2024)

You may not think of Twitter as synonymous with video. It's all a bunch of pithy text, right? Not quite: 2 billion videos are viewed on the service every day, according to Twitter. A lot of that is advertising, of course, but it’s come a long way from that old-school, 140-character limit.

Whether Elon Musk is forced to buy Twitter or not, the service probably isn’t going away in the near future and video use on the platform will only increase.

You've probably seen a video on Twitter that you wanted to save to view offline, much like you can on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.You have your reasons; we trust you to not violate anyone’s copyright or Twitter’s Terms of Service. So here's how to download those clips.

The problem with Twitter is, unlike with pictures, you can’t simply right-click (on the desktop) or long-press (in the mobile apps) to save vids you see on Twitter. You have to employ third-party software or apps, helper websites, or browser extensions to get what you want. As a bonus, these steps usually work for downloading animated GIFs from Twitter, as well.

(Credit: PCMag)

The first step is to get the video’s address. You’ll need that URL to paste in and start the download process in most cases. Right-click on the Twitter video itself and select Copy Video Address, which captures the same URL you get by clicking on the tweet itself. That’s what you’ll be pasting into the software or helper sites below.

Desktop Software

The most powerful tools for getting video downloads from the internet, including Twitter, tend to be dedicated desktop software. They’re especially useful if you are doing a lot of video downloading in bulk, but to avoid restrictions you’ll probably have to pay for it.

Among the best that works with Twitter is VideoProc Converter ($25.95 for 1 year/3 PCs to start; Windows or macOS). It's also one of our top picks for downloading from YouTube—if you pay for it, it works with over 1,000 sites that show video. Once you paste in the URL to “analyze,” you can capture a video, a GIF, or even a live from Twitter in MP4 or other formats.

(Credit: VideoProc)

You might assume that other previously recommended video downloaders, like our favorite for YouTube called 4K Video Downloader, would also get video from Twitter. Yet 4KVD does not. So check the specs or try a free version with Twitter video URLs before you buy desktop software. Other programs that say they support Twitter video include Videoder and SnapDownloader.

Helper Sites

Websites that make it a breeze to download videos abound. They also easily become a playground full of annoying advertising traps—buttons in the ads that look like you’ll be getting a downloaded video, but that’s not the download the ads provide. Be careful where you click on helper sites.

A select few cater specifically to Twitter video downloads. The cleanest appears to be Downloader4twitter.com, which doesn’t have any ads.

SaveTweetVid has a relatively clean interface despite the ads, and it has a few extras in addition to saving video—it offers a QR code on the download page to scan with your mobile device to finish the download on your phone or tablet, plus a button that sends the highest-end version of the video directly to Dropbox. Some, but not all, video downloads on SaveTweetVid also come up with an option to download directly to MP3 audio-only.

Other decent-looking helper sites you can try include TWSaver, SSSTwitter, and TWDown.net (companion to the champion Facebook video downloader, FDown.net).

Beyond the ad traps, keep in mind that these sites come and go like the wind. Don’t be surprised if the links above stop working overnight. On the upside, they grab videos directly from Twitter’s servers, so you get them unadulterated with no watermarks. Helper sites also have the added feature of working quite well on mobile devices. More on that below.

Browser Extensions

If you hate the idea of cutting and pasting an entire URL, then a browser extension that sticks the download options into your toolbar, or on the page itself, might be the way to go. In fact, many of the sites above, like SSSTwitter, have a companion extension, usually for the Chrome browser.

The Chrome Web Store is littered with extensions, many with middling ratings from very few users, which doesn’t exactly engender trust. The one extension we can recommend—we’ve done it before for YouTube downloaders—is Video DownloadHelper. It not only downloads from multiple sites, it also offers extensions for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

Mobile Options

You might want a Twitter video to save straight to your photo collection on your phone or tablet. As we mentioned, the easy way to do that is to use a helper website like those above. To get the video URL however, you need to get the tweet you want, and find the Share button underneath—it looks like a box with an arrow shooting out the top. Select Copy Link. Then you’ll have something to paste into the helper site you open in the mobile browser.

(Credit: PCMag)

On iOS, with the sandboxing the operating system does between apps, the downloads don’t always save properly. It's a security feature, not a bug. Try installing a file management app to save to, like Documents. You can also try to paste the URL into the app AnySave.

One cool way to download on iOS is to use the Shortcuts app. You’ll have to install a shortcut code on it to make this work. Visit tvdl.app on your Safari browser and click the Get the Shortcut button to get the code. Give it permission to appear in your sharesheet—that is the page that pops up whenever you click a Share button in iOS. After that, click that Share button under any video in the mobile version of Twitter and it will take you through multiple steps, including options for downloading the video in different sizes. (It may also ask you to open PayPal to make a donation).

Say yes to everything (except the donation if you’re not ready to pony up cash) and the video goes to your Photos app (camera roll). Be aware, it may not look like it’s there because the shortcut downloads the video with its creation date intact. You may have to search through the photos/videos to find it. Keep the shortcut updated as they're released or it may stop working.

On Android, of course, things are easier. The helper download websites should work fine. There are also actual apps for downloading videos from Twitter, like the aptly named Downloader for Twitter (of which there are several copycats). Like with the helper websites, cut and paste the video or animated GIF’s URL. Like the websites, even an app this highly rated is utterly ad-riddled and confusing. But at least it's free.