
Just nearing the end of last year, iOS developer Jonas Gessner released his highly popular ProTube for YouTube application on the iOS App Store with the ability to save YouTube videos to a local playlist that could be viewed offline. It was just about the best way to experience YouTube on a non-jailbroken device. It is worth noting that Gessner has offered a jailbreak version of ProTube for a number of years now with full video download and import functionality.
Unfortunately, although things looked to be off to a good start for Gessner, it looks as though the developer has just been forced to pull ProTube from the App Store temporarily due to internal controversy having to do with the local playlist feature. Gessner notes that he needs to follow the YouTube terms of service in order for Apple to accept his application in the App Store, and right now, his user-loved functionality isn't playing nice with Apple's rules or Google's rules for that matter.

Gessner plans to re-release his ProTube for YouTube application in the iOS App Store again once everything has been straightened out with Apple, although he does comment that the re-submitted version of the application is likely to lose the local playlist feature, which unfortunately means no more saving videos for offline viewing. This will make the application a lot more like many of those other third-party YouTube applications out there, only it will continue to have the snazzy new interface that users have seemed to love since ProTube for YouTube's release in the iOS App Store.
Luckily, for those that already own ProTube for YouTube from the iOS App Store, the application will remain in the users' possession with the local playlist functionality. The developer recommends not updating to the latest version when it's released if you want to continue to be able to save videos to your device for offline viewing, as the new version will disable this functionality to conform with Google's rules.
For those that are still looking for YouTube video downloading functionality, ProTube is still available in Cydia for $1.99, although it hasn't yet been optimized for the retina HD displays on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The interface still remains a bit dated as of this point in time, but functionally, everything seems to work as expected, even on the latest devices running iOS 8.
So with another gem lost from the iOS App Store, we can't help but sigh. Luckily, Cydia isn't going anywhere any time soon.
Sources: Jonas Gessner
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