What Is a Facebook Video Downloader and How to Use It?

Have you ever created a video on Instagram and pushed it to your Facebook, only to find that doing this limits your sharing options to other platforms? Or perhaps you want to use a section of a Facebook video for your project? Or it might be as simple as wanting to share a video with family or friends who don’t use Facebook? As you might have realized, downloading Facebook videos can appear quite complicated. 

It is possible to save a video directly within Facebook, but doing this only saves it on your Facebook Watch Later tab and not offline on your device. Using a Facebook video downloader is a great way to download videos so that you can edit them, send them to other friends, or watch them offline.

What Is a Facebook Video Downloader?

A Facebook video downloader lets you download videos from social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. Saving videos offline is currently not possible on these platforms. This can make it difficult if you need to use a video for another project, if you want to edit one of your own videos, or even if you want to share videos with people who don’t currently use either of these platforms.

Facebook Video Downloader for Windows or Video Downloader for Facebook on Android works by accessing the provided Facebook link and downloading the relevant video to your device. Once downloaded, you can edit the videos, share them or watch them offline.

Most of these downloaders have a bulk download option that lets you save multiple videos simultaneously. This is a handy feature, especially if you’re preparing for a trip and know you’ll be spending a lot of time in the car, bus, train, or plane.

What Is the Difference Between a Facebook Video Downloader and Other Video Downloaders?

There are a lot of similarities between Facebook video downloaders and other video downloaders. The user interfaces work very similarly for both of these options. A regular video downloader might be sufficient to download video content from most social media and video sharing sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and DailyMotion.

Still, they may not work on stream-only sites like Facebook and Instagram. This is why Facebook Video Downloaders were developed. These programs have been designed to navigate around Facebook’s stream-only protocols and limited video options to download a copy of the video to your device. 

Another difference between the two is that video converters usually have more options for the file format and even the quality of the video. Users have more freedom in deciding what format they wish to download the video in and what quality they want. With Facebook downloaders, the options can sometimes be a little more limited.

Types of Facebook Video Downloaders

There are a wide variety of downloaders available, and depending on your preferences, you can choose between any of them. Most of them will download the video in MP4 format at the highest possible quality. Very few of them have the option to change or convert the file type when downloading a video.

Let’s look at some of the options available for Facebook video downloaders.

Online Downloaders

These Facebook Video Downloaders are websites based online and are usually free to use and quite convenient. Some of the free ones might have limitations to how many videos can be downloaded daily. With these types of downloaders, you usually copy the video URL from Facebook and then input it in the link field, and the program will download the video. Great examples of online Facebook video downloaders are fbdownloader, FBDOWN.net, and GetVid.

Browser Extensions

There is also a range of browser extensions and add-ons available that you can use to download Facebook videos. The benefit of using a browser extension is that you can save the videos directly from Facebook by playing the video and then clicking on the download button for your extension found in the toolbar.

This means you don’t have to bother with copying links and then navigating to another website to download the video. A few good browser extensions for downloading videos from Facebook include Facebook Video Downloader for Firefox, Social Video Downloader for Chrome, and FBDOWN.net Chrome extension.

Software/Apps

Finally, there are also apps that you can download which you can use to download videos from Facebook. These apps work similar to their online counterparts, except that they are installed directly on your device. This is more stable as online sites can sometimes be down or slow, whereas an app is not affected. Facebook Video Downloader for Windows and Video Downloader for Facebook on Android are both great examples of apps that you can install on your device to download Facebook videos.

How to Use Facebook Video Downloader?

If you want to start using a Facebook video downloader, here are the basic steps you’ll need to take.

For Apps and Online Websites

The below method is how to download Facebook videos using an app on your device or an online website.

Step 1: Find the Video on Facebook

On Facebook, find the video that you want to download.

Step 2: Copy the Link

Click on the three horizontal dots to open more options on the video post. In the drop-down list, select ‘Copy Link.’

Step 3: Paste Link in Your Program/Website

Navigate to your chosen online website or open the relevant app on your device. Paste the link you copied in step two into the link field.

Step 4: Download Video

Click on the ‘Start/Go/Download’ button to start the download.

For Extensions

Below are the steps for using a browser extension to download Facebook videos.

Step 1: Find the Video on Facebook

On Facebook, find the video that you want to download.

Step 2: Start Watching the Video

Start playing the video on Facebook.

Step 3: Click on Download

Click on the download button for your chosen browser extension in your toolbar. Note, if your browser extension is for Chrome, you won’t be able to use it from another browser.

Download your Facebook videos easily

With the above knowledge in hand, you can now easily download Facebook videos to keep or use in your projects. You should keep in mind that videos from other people may have copyright content on them, so use them carefully.