How to Download Threads Videos on iPhone

You are scrolling Threads, a video comes up that you want to keep, and you go looking for a download button. There isn't one. Long pressing gets you nowhere useful, and the share menu offers to send the post to someone rather than save it. Most people end up screen recording, which gives you a lower quality copy with the playback bar and your notifications stuck in it.

This guide shows how to save the actual video file to your iPhone instead. It takes about two minutes the first time and a couple of taps after that.

The quick answer

Get TVDL Pro, add the TVDL Pro shortcut, and share the Threads post to it. The video saves straight to your Photos app. It works for photos and whole carousels too, not only videos.

Threads is a Pro feature. The free TVDL shortcut covers X, Bluesky and Mastodon, and it does not save from Threads.

How to download a Threads video step by step

The setup happens once. After that, saving a post is steps 3 and 4.

1. Get TVDL Pro. Subscribe on the Pro page. Threads is included in every plan: $5 a month, $48 a year (which works out to $4 a month), or a one-time Lifetime purchase.
2. Add the Pro shortcut. Open the TVDL Pro shortcut link on your iPhone and tap Add Shortcut. When it asks, enter the email you paid with. That is how the shortcut knows you are on Pro.
3. Share the post. In the Threads app, tap the share icon under the post and pick TVDL Pro from the share sheet. If you don't see it there, tap Copy Link instead, open the Shortcuts app, run TVDL Pro and paste the link.
4. Find it in Photos. Give it a few seconds. The video shows up in your Photos app, ready to watch offline or send to a friend.

The first run asks for permission to read the link and save to Photos. Tap Allow and you won't be asked again.

9:41

Sam@sam.clips · 2h

Golden hour on the pier, in slow motion.

0:18

42

89

1.2K

Saved to Camera Roll

Post by @sam.clips

Done

Messages

Notes

Mail

AirDrop

TVDL ProPRO

›

Copy link

›

Tap Share on the post and pick TVDL Pro. Straight to your Photos.

Why Threads is awkward to save from

Threads has no save button for video. You can like a post, repost it, quote it or send it in a message, but nothing in the app puts the video file on your phone. The browser version at threads.com is no better, because the video plays inside the page and Safari has no download option for it.

Carousels make it more awkward. A single Threads post can hold a mix of photos and videos that you swipe through. Even the photos are a chore, since you would have to screenshot them one at a time, and the videos in the middle of the carousel can't be saved at all.

TVDL Pro reads the whole post. For a single video, you get that video. For a carousel, you get every photo and every video in it, saved to Photos in one go.

Which Threads links work

These are the link formats TVDL accepts for Threads:

• Post links. The kind that looks like threads.com/@name/post/… Links on threads.net work too, so older links people send you are fine.
• Share links. When you tap Copy Link in the Threads app, it often gives you a /share/ link. Those work.
• Short links. Links in the /t/ form work too.

What won't work is a link to a profile or a search page, like threads.com/@name on its own. Those aren't a single post, so there is nothing for TVDL to save. Open the post itself and copy its link instead.

What you can save from Threads

With Pro, TVDL saves videos, photos and carousels from public Threads posts. Everything goes into your Photos app, the same place your own videos and pictures live, so it backs up and shares like anything else on your phone.

The same Pro shortcut also saves from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Reddit and Kuaishou. The supported platforms page has the full list of what works where.

The honest limits

I'd rather you hear these from me before you subscribe.

Threads is new in TVDL. I added it to Pro at the end of September, and it's still being tuned (you may see it labeled beta). Most posts save fine, but now and then one might not. When that happens, TVDL tells you and offers to send me the link. Please send it. Those reports are how I find the odd post shapes and fix them. There is more on the launch in the announcement post.

Public posts only. TVDL sees what someone who isn't logged in can see. It can't reach a private account, so if a post is only visible to that person's followers, it won't save.

Daily limits. Pro has generous daily limits set for personal use. Saving the posts you actually want to keep won't come close to them. They exist so one account can't overload the servers for everyone else.

It runs on iOS 13 and later. I've tested it on iOS 27, and the steps are the same on every version.

And the usual note: saving a public video to watch later is one thing. Reposting someone else's work as your own is another. Credit the person who made it.

Try it on the next Threads video you see

I've been making TVDL on my own since 2018. It started with Twitter videos, and Pro is how I've been able to add apps like Threads, because it pays for the servers and download engines that make them work.

If you want to save from Threads, pick a Pro plan, add the shortcut, and share the next video you find to TVDL Pro. It'll be in your Photos a few seconds later.