Linux Lovers Always Left Behind
So if you are like me using Linux every day you already know how many apps skip supporting us. Vidmate is same. It’s made for Android and sadly got no official Linux version. I searched on internet if someone made a port or version for Ubuntu but nope. Not even beta.
But me being stubborn I didn’t stop. I thought okay if it’s not made for Linux maybe I can make it work another way. So I started testing.
Tried to Use Wine – No Luck
First try I thought maybe Wine can help. Wine runs Windows apps on Linux so I downloaded a Vidmate EXE file I found online. Ran it using Wine but it crashed instantly. Turns out that EXE was fake and Vidmate is not even made for Windows officially.
So Wine option died on first try. But I wasn’t done yet.
Plan B – Android Emulator for Linux
Next I installed an Android emulator on my Linux Mint system. I tried Anbox first. It’s light but not every app runs on it smooth. I managed to install Vidmate APK on it but video downloads failed halfway. It also had sound issues.
Then I switched to Waydroid – another Android container that works on Ubuntu and Mint. Bit heavy but it worked better. Installed Vidmate inside Waydroid and guess what? This time it opened fine and I downloaded few videos from YouTube clone site and also Facebook.
Best Working Way – Use Vidmate in Android VM
Then someone in Linux forum told me about using full Android OS on VirtualBox. I installed Android x86 version as a virtual machine. Gave it 2GB RAM and installed Play Store manually. From there I sideloaded Vidmate APK and boom it worked like phone. I could search videos download in HD and even watch inside the VM. Only thing was speed. Bit slow compared to real phone but stable. No crash no bugs.
So till now Android x86 on VirtualBox was best solution I found for using Vidmate on Linux.
Why Not Just Use Browser Tools?
You might ask bro why not just use any online downloader on Linux browser? Yeah you can but browser tools got limit. Most of them don’t work with Instagram or Facebook links. They also don’t let you choose resolution like Vidmate does.
Plus Vidmate can handle 4K clips and batch download which browser tools can’t do proper. That’s why even with extra steps I wanted to make Vidmate run on my Linux system.
Caution – Watch the APK
One warning tho. While testing I found many fake Vidmate APKs online with viruses. Some ask for permission to access contacts even on emulator. Only download APK from trusted source like uptodown or APKMirror.
Also if you using emulator or VM make snapshot before installing anything. Just in case app crash your system.
Alternative Ideas
If you don’t wanna install emulator you can try other apps like youtube-dl or yt-dlp on Linux terminal. They are command line tools but powerful. Still not full Vidmate experience. But good if you just want videos fast and clean.
My Opinion After Testing All
After testing 4 methods I can say this:
- Wine = Waste of time
- Anbox = Light but buggy
- Waydroid = Decent if setup right
- Android x86 VM = Best way to run full Vidmate experience
For real daily use I still use my Android phone but when I’m working on laptop and need a quick download I use the VM trick. Not super fast but it does the job.