You would think uploading a video to YouTube was easy. Not so on Windows Phone! Until now. Finally, apps have arrived and the days of fiddly and pointless email uploads have come to pass.

Windows Phone and Google products don’t generally get along, which is perhaps why it has been such a problem to find a reliable and consistent method of uploading video from a Windows Phone device to YouTube. We previously looked at ways of sharing your video clips online with Facebook and other services, in which it was revealed how to upload a clip to YouTube using email. This method is remarkable for its lack of elegance, however, and has fortunately been superseded by a handful of apps for which uploading to the popular video service is child’s play.

Focus: Reliable Solutions

There are two apps we’re going to focus on, Tube Pro and Nokia Video Uploader. When this post was conceived, I had intended to look at a third, Microsoft’s "official" (read: designed to comply with Google’s strict specifications and ever-changing API) YouTube app.

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However, true to form (in August 2013 the app was blocked by Google and pulled from the Windows Phone Store until Microsoft made some changes), at the time of writing, this app appears to have broken once again, with endless refrains of "Something happened, we're not sure what" whenever viewing, searching or uploading a video is attempted. (Be aware that there are other issues between Google and Microsoft when it comes to Windows Phone, not least the perhaps more important issue with email and calendar syncing)

This is particularly unfortunate as the app had every chance of being the most popular YouTube app in the store. While it might suddenly start working again, reliance on apps requires a certain amount of trust; perhaps it is better to leave this one alone now…

Tube Pro

A complete mobile YouTube experience for Windows Phone, Tube Pro not only allows uploading of videos to your YouTube account, it also facilitates downloads, playlists and more. The Sign In button in the top left enables you to connect the app to your YouTube account, while uploading can only be done with videos recorded within the app, via the Recorded tile.

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Here, you can tap the camera record button to capture your clip, then pause to finish before tapping the Upload button to send the clip to YouTube.

When uploading a video you can add a title, description and tags, and it shouldn’t be long before the finished product is available on YouTube.

Tube Pro is free, but ad-supported; there is an ad-free version called SuperTube ($1.29) available.

Nokia Video Upload

Despite the title of the previous app, this is the one I consider the “pro” solution. It is fast, efficient and does exactly what it says. Windows Phone doesn’t necessarily need any bells and whistles when it comes to YouTube apps as HTML5 video is already supported; browsing the YouTube site and streaming through the native video player is simple.

Nokia Video Upload makes the process of uploading a clip to YouTube largely effortless. As long as you have added your account details, you’ll be ready to upload clips each time you launch the app; recent clips are presented in a typical Windows Phone grid view for you to quickly access.

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Attributes can be set via the menu, limited to a Clip title and the choice to toggle whether the clip remains Private or not.

Tapping the Upload button – best done over Wi-Fi – is the final stage, and the app displays a progress bar to let you know how long it will be until the upload finishes. Note that you will have to leave the app open (don’t press Start, Back or switch the phone into standby or attempt to launch the camera) until the upload is complete.

As with almost all of the great Nokia apps for Windows Phone, this is a focused, polished app that partly resolves the problem of a missing YouTube upload option in the device camera.

Easy Uploading to YouTube on Windows Phone Is Finally Achievable

As I prefer not to be distracted or bogged down by the presence of the full YouTube experience in Tube Pro, my favoured option for uploading video to YouTube is the Nokia Video Upload app, available both as a standalone app and as a sharing option from within the Windows Phone camera.

Tube Pro, meanwhile, is a reliable alternative, complete with everything you could possibly need from a YouTube app, including the all-important upload tool.

Do you use either of these solutions to upload video to YouTube? Do you use another app? Let us know in the comments below.

Image Credits: Angry businessman Via Shutterstock