
NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client - Nginx487
https://newpipe.schabi.org/
======
drewg123
This is the best youtube client, bar none. It keeps local history and
"subscriptions" without requiring you to log in to google. I use it on an
Amazon Fire Tablet. There seems to be no iOS equivalent, which is one of the
things preventing me from upgrading to an iPad.

Has anybody used it recently on AndroidTV / FireTV? I've tried it several
times in the past, and its always been wonky there. I use SmartYouTubeTV
([https://smartyoutubetv.github.io/](https://smartyoutubetv.github.io/)) on
AndroidTV right now, and the logged out experience is terrible.

~~~
ss3000
> This is the best youtube client, bar none. It keeps local history and
> "subscriptions" without requiring you to log in to google.

Isn't it funny how one man's feature is another man's bug?

Not supporting logging in with a Google account to keep subscriptions and
history synchronized across devices is exactly what disqualifies it from
consideration for me, and I suspect I'm not alone here.

For those like me there's YouTube Vanced, which is almost an exact clone of
YouTube except without the ads, allows you to disable a bunch of distracting
"features" like info cards and watermarks, and with the ability to use MicroG
in place of Play Services for the actual logging in with Google feature:
[https://vanced.app/](https://vanced.app/)

Isn't it great that we both have the ability to choose the YouTube replacement
app that works best for us despite Google technically "owning" the platform
though? This is why I love Android. (EDIT: Re-read this and realized this
could be seen as inflammatory. Really did not mean to start a platform war.
Just glad that Android is a choice that's available to those who value this
kind of thing.)

~~~
ss3000
Piggybacking on my own comment, I'd love to hear if anyone has ideas on how to
block Ads on a Chromecast...

~~~
usless534
You might want to consider setting up a Pi-Hole. Not sure how well those work
with chromecasts though.

~~~
Quiark
Pi hole cannot block ads inside of YouTube app, only on the web. I suppose
that will be similar with Chromecast.

~~~
StencilofLife
Youtube ads work in a way that domain blocking(pi-hole) cannot block them.

------
slim
I hope the developers are here. I'm so grateful for this app and especially
the support : Everytime YouTube obfuscates their API to take them down, they
quickly publish an updated app that works.

please donate :
[https://newpipe.schabi.org/donate/](https://newpipe.schabi.org/donate/)

~~~
product50
I hope you realize that apps like these kill the ecosystem for content
creators who are paid based on ads. If you don't like YT ads, pay for the
premium version. But suggesting that this app is great is not right. Anyways,
I trust if this becomes big, YT will kill them anyways.

YT API requires keys and they know exactly what is going on here and can shut
it down in a heartbeat if they want to. This is exactly what happened to apps
built on top of Twitter APIs back in the day.

~~~
valvar
If I want to support a content creator, I do so by donating to them directly,
not by allowing a massive and (in my personal opinion) evil company to profit
both of my and their backs. Not to mention that both seeing ads and using the
official YouTube app is quite unpleasant.

I am very grateful to the developers of NewPipe for providing me with a
painless way to experience the content produced by creators that I like, and
which also respects my freedoms and my privacy. It is unfortunate that YouTube
has an effective monopoly on its market, and that a lot of the content is not
available elsewhere -- I'd much rather watch content served by a platform
which respects its users, but unfortunately that is not really possible today.
So in the meanwhile, I am happy that I don't have to support a nasty company
with a nasty business model.

~~~
ehsankia
Honest and serious question, if Youtube were to shut down tomorrow, do people
think that whatever alternative (or even better, competing alternatives) would
have a different model?

I'm curious to know what exactly would you do differently if you were to make
a replacement for Youtube.

~~~
keb_
I believe, based on conversations I've had, that the target audience of
NewPipe overlaps with the target audience of solutions such as PeerTube,
Mastodon, and other FOSS, privacy-centric alternatives.

~~~
ehsankia
Does PeerTube pay people? Or is the assumption that creators should get all
their revenue from external sources?

~~~
cycloptic
PeerTube is not a company, it's an open source implementation of a peer-to-
peer video sharing platform. Any person or company that wants to can pick it
up and build a commercial platform on top of it. Whether that includes
advertising or not is up to them.

~~~
ehsankia
Sure, but my point is that this doesn't answer my question. I wasn't asking
which technology would the next company use. If Youtube used P2P, it still
wouldn't solve many of the issue people have with Youtube.

~~~
keb_
The assumption is: yes, the content creators who host their videos via P2P
solutions like PeerTube would have to rely on external sources such as
Patreon, or in-video sponsorships, or as another user pointed, use the built-
in donations feature.

> If Youtube used P2P, it still wouldn't solve many of the issue people have
> with Youtube.

What issues in particular are you talking about and how would P2P fail to
resolve them?

~~~
ehsankia
This very thread is about an ad-free client for Youtube. How would P2P change
ads?

~~~
keb_
You dodged my question, but I could try to answer yours.

Firstly, no one in this comment thread has claimed that PeerTube can solve all
of the issues of YouTube. Privacy-oriented folk, and some FOSS advocates see
it as a _potential_ solution. Further, I do not personally use PeerTube, but I
do use Mastodon and have read about PeerTube in passing.

Another major component of PeerTube aside from the P2P video is the
decentralization aspect powered by ActivityPub, which is also used by
Mastodon. So not only are the videos decentralized themselves, but so is the
service; you can joined one PeerTube instance, and view videos that other
instances can also view. If you grow unhappy with the administration of your
current instance (maybe they added ads to the page, or maybe they are privacy-
invading), you can simply move to another but still have access to the same
videos.

In addition, since the videos are P2P, this reduces the server loads on each
respective instance and thus lowers the baseline cost of having to host every
video uploaded. This could reduce the need for ad revenue to keep the servers
running.

------
coayer
Probably my favourite part about Newpipe is the option to skip silences. If
you're watching/listening to a speech-only video, it (at least feels) like
such an improvement.

~~~
on_and_off
oh wow, I need to go look at how this works.

The people that created pocketcast implemented the same feature and as I
remember it it is pretty wild implementation wise.

------
osamagirl69
I absolutely love newpipe, and use it exclusively over the youtube app on
android.

On a similar note - I also have found invidious [1] to be so much better than
the normal youtube web frontend, and use it almost exclusively for my desktop
youtube usage. It might be an unfair comparison because I am not a google user
and the youtube website is terrible for non-logged-in users, but for us it is
an absolute godsend. I am not sure how it works as far as views and add
revenue and all that, and certainly the ability to thumbs-up and comment is
disabled unless you click through to the youube link and log in, but I
generally try to support the channels I follow through other means so I do not
feel too bad about it.

[1][https://github.com/iv-org/invidious](https://github.com/iv-org/invidious)

~~~
glenstein
Invidious is grand. I think the missing killer feature that I want is to long
into invidious via NewPipe.

~~~
djeiasbsbo
I know that logging in isn't possible yet but invidious links can actually be
opened with NewPipe I think.

Also other great substitutes for Twitter and Instagram are Nitter[0] and
Bibliogram[1].

[0][https://nitter.net](https://nitter.net)

[1][https://bibliogram.art](https://bibliogram.art)

------
realpanzer
There are some more options available if it happens that you don't like
Newpipe: [https://www.layluh.com/](https://www.layluh.com/)
[https://freetubeapp.io/](https://freetubeapp.io/)
[http://omega.gg/MotionBox/](http://omega.gg/MotionBox/)
[http://www.viewpure.com](http://www.viewpure.com)
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/df-tube-
distractio...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/df-tube-distraction-
free/mjdepdfccjgcndkmemponafgioodelna) [https://toogl.es](https://toogl.es)

~~~
MaxBarraclough
I don't think ViewPure counts as a YouTube client. It just embeds a YouTube
video, which is enough to strip away the YouTube clutter, but it's not
reimplementing the YouTube player's JavaScript code the way invidio.us does,
for instance.

I could be mistaken but I don't think YouTube officially permits third-party
clients of any sort. Perhaps that's a good litmus test.

------
627467
I both pay for yt premium and use newpipe on older (degoogled) devices where
using latest youtube.apk is not an option anymore. Also, where I live yt
premium is a fraction of the cost of many developed countries, cheap for me
but not for many in this country. In some countries yt premium is not even
available.

I read a lot 'entitled' opinions in this thread pretending that the whole
world should ignore their circumstances and just do whatever works for them
(ie. Pay for yt premium). The internet is global: why would you think that
using open source software to access bits off of global internet is
unethical/illegitimate?

~~~
elwell
> why would you think that using open source software to access bits off of
> global internet is unethical/illegitimate?

"It's just bits." That's a slippery slope.

One might argue that circumventing the intended purpose of a platform in this
way uses technological advantage to take advantage of content creators who are
vulnerable.

The kid who takes all the candy from the "Please take one." jack-o-lantern on
Halloween is only taking a bit of atoms from their neighbor's porch.

Now let me get off my high horse and turn my ad blocker back on.

~~~
jdeibele
I just spent a few hours at an elderly relative's house checking over her
computer.

She had her screen lock and a message on Chrome saying that she needed to
"Call Microsoft" and she wasn't able to close the window, etc. So she called
and "John Henderson" was able to talk her into installing LogMeIn. He then
started about charging her $149 and she came to her senses and called me.

I'm 99% sure that she was served some Javascript via an ad network.

I installed uBlock Origin on both of her browsers. I tried changing her DNS to
Adguard but it turns out that Comcast hasn't let people change DNS on their
routers for many years. Even if you change it on your personal device, they'll
force DNS on you.

I have been debating putting ad-blocking on their computer because I've
worried about something like this happening. I'd also worried about some site
not functioning properly because of ads being blocked. But we'll deal with
that if and when.

Sorry but not sorry to sites that are doing 3rd party ad networks that they
don't audit.

~~~
emilburzo
> Even if you change it on your personal device, they'll force DNS on you.

How does that work?

~~~
ornornor
Firewall rule in the router to hijack port 53 traffic and send it to their own
dns instead?

------
Press2forEN
This is the only app we allow our kids to watch YouTube on. It dispenses with
the ads and 90% of the tricks they use to keep you watching (no overlays at
the end and no autoplay).

~~~
nforest
You can now enable auto-play in the settings.

~~~
hyperdimension
Well, it sounds to me that the parent comment viewed a lack of autoplay as a
_feature_ , but it's nice to know it's actually an option at any rate.

~~~
MayeulC
It's nice for listening to music, but a bit cumberstone to use.

I wish:

* the playlist was easily accessible from the left pane drawer

* autoplay was easily toggleable from the playlist view

* the automatically added title wouldn't be a regular title in the playlist before it's played (a bit lower and grayed, and adding items would do so above that title)

* the playlist would show various options for the next automatic title.

~~~
power78
Go contribute it into NewPipe

~~~
MayeulC
I've looked into that. I guess I bit more than I could chew (peertube
integration, though now with libtorrent supporting webtorrents, it could be
easier).

But nowadays, I don't really want to invest time in the Android ecosystem,
especially as I think I'll switch my daily driver to a PinePhone soon enough.
The desktop equivalent is freetube, I think.

------
fahrradflucht
I read a lot of people's experiences here in the thread and I think a lot of
you really should give YouTube Premium a try. It solves most of the problems
you are describing, while also paying the creators

~~~
marvion
This. If your problem are ads, background-playing and download - then just go
with premium.

I do understand that some apps provide extra features etc. but premium removes
ads cross-platform... and since GoogleMusic is included, it replaces Spotify
as well(yes, it's different..).

~~~
zbrozek
I think this app caters to a different set of needs. Personally I find the
official YouTube app noisy and pushy and offensive. Autoplay and PIP are anti-
features I want to avoid. Recommendations are also unwanted.

This alternative looks great to me, on paper at least. I'll give it a go.

~~~
harshitaneja
Autoplay and PIP can be turned off in settings. PIP is one of the reasons I
got premium initially but the ad free experience on all devices is what made
me stay.

~~~
zbrozek
Defaults matter. I have a lot of devices and I can't be bothered to make every
app less awful on every one of them every few months. It's far easier to opt
out of the app entirely.

~~~
halflings
It's likely that most uses actually enjoy autoplay and PIP (I certainly do).

You're saying that you don't pay for Premium and use an unofficial client that
does not pay content creators just because it's too much of a hassle to change
the two settings that bother you.

------
unixhero
Will check it out.

The last 3 years I've been very happy with "YouTube Vanced", in particular
because of: background play, native adblocking, fully native logged in
experience if desired, AND it switches to audio only encode if background play
is enabled so it saves data.

Get it here: [https://vanced.app/](https://vanced.app/)

~~~
jron
NewPipe also has background play that only uses the audio feed. I thought I
would miss the logged in experience but if you take a few minutes to subscribe
through the app, the UX is actually better or at least on par with the native
youtube app.

------
noarchy
This remains a killer app for me on Android. I don't know if anything
equivalent exists on iOS, to enable background playing and video downloads
(and you can choose whether to download them as audio files).

~~~
sgloutnikov
Musi[1] is what I use for playing in the background on iOS.

[1] [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/musi-simple-music-
streaming/id...](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/musi-simple-music-
streaming/id591560124)

~~~
noarchy
I'm not sure that Apple would ban it. Do they really care if people bypass
YouTube's intended restrictions? Obviously Google cares, so you won't be
seeing NewPipe on the Play Store.

~~~
Nextgrid
Apple is in bed with major scummy companies like Google when it comes to the
Apple Store and has removed alternative clients in the past.

------
NullPrefix
The app is great, but wasn't google recently banning user accounts for it?
Youtube account and google account is same thing, so this app is useful only
for othwerwise ungoogled users

~~~
causality0
Like all third-party youtube apps and downloaders, you should use a dummy
account that's subscribed to all the same channels as your real one.

~~~
djeiasbsbo
I don't think that NewPipe even allows logging in... I think it is an
alternative to that because it allows one to subscribe to channels without an
account.

What he probably meant is that people who are logged into the Google Services
with their google account got im trouble for using NewPipe, which to me seems
unlikely. I doubt that Google got away with something like that!

~~~
glenstein
Yeah, I'm confused about what people even talking about with logins. That's
not a thing. There's no option to login with Google/Youtube on Newpipe, and
that's by design. The value proposition, in addition to being a wonderfully
designed, lightweight app, is the ability to subscribe, follow channels, view,
download video without any Google/Youtube connection.

~~~
causality0
I wasn't aware of that at the time. Having used it a bit now, some of the
choices do baffle me. It has such wonderfully granular control over bitrate
and background behavior, but no option to play the videos you tap on without
having to hit a separate "play" button after the video is open? Very odd.

------
JulianWasTaken
NewPipe is fantastic, but worth mentioning since I don't see it so far, that
the one killer downside is "no support for Chromecasting/DLNA" [1] [2], which
means I continue to keep the official YouTube app around for occasional use
when I want a bigger screen.

[1]:
[https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/105](https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/105)
[2]:
[https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/668](https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/668)

~~~
jiggunjer
But chromecast lets you mirror your screen. Why not do that?

~~~
JulianWasTaken
Screen mirroring nearly completely defeats the purpose of a chromecast to me.

It has way poorer framerate, requires streaming to two places instead of one
(from source to phone and then phone to cast device), requires the phone to
stay awake thereby needing more power and wasting the phone display which I'll
not look at, has a way worse interface for whatever app you're looking at,
because what you see is a scaled up phone interface instead of one more
suitable for a larger screen, ...

I essentially never use it when I can avoid it, and even when I need mirroring
if I have a cable I'll use that instead.

------
piyush_soni
Isn't it against Google's terms and conditions to run such an app that plays
YouTube videos without playing the ads too? I remember reading about that.

~~~
sjroot
Most likely. I understand the appeal of these types of applications but it
really just comes off as entitled IMO. Just watch the ads to support the
content creators you care about - it isn’t that hard.

I imagine this will be an unpopular opinion here though.

~~~
keb_
It's certainly not a popular opinion, but it's definitely an uninformed
opinion. The aim of NewPipe is not to "stick it to the man" or even to
advertisers, it's to create a superior viewing experience that removes much of
the bloat of Youtube's official app, and also being light on system resources.
Whereas the official app used to crash and warm up my Moto G5 Plus, NewPipe
has been running like a dream for years.

~~~
namdnay
Well yeah but it also removes ads... which are how content creators and the
people who build and maintain the platform infrastructure make a living.

~~~
anoncake
It doesn't remove ads, it just doesn't play them. Why do you expect the
developer spend effort on funneling money to Google while degrading the
viewing experience?

~~~
namdnay
Because they’re the ones hosting and serving the video?

~~~
anoncake
No one forces them to do that. They're free to charge for their services.

------
sniperjzp
Watching youtube videos using Google's bandwidth, without watching any ads or
paying for sub, I don't see how this could be legit in the long term.

~~~
izacus
I wonder why this is being downvoted - Google asks for subscription for
features that this app hacks for free. In any other context this would be
deemed unethical (or even piracy). E.g. think of an application that streams
Apple Music without paying Apple or distributors of cracked apps with enabled
in-app purchase features.

And yet the HN community happily endorses such apps when it comes to Google. I
also wonder why moderators think that this is acceptable in terms of YouTube.

~~~
NMDaniel
That's not piracy. Youtube is sending you packets, out of their own choice.
It's my own right to save those packets(without re-distributing) them and
watch them in any form I like.

Playing in the background is not a "feature", it's a basic device capability,
the fact that YouTube went out of their way to prevent it does not make it
right, imagine if the browser client had stopped playing when you went out of
focus - that'd be completely unacceptable. The fact that somehow this is
accepted on smartphones probably says more about consumers lack of
technological competence and awareness (and maybe historical reasons, as
earlier versions of Android/iOS didn't have proper multi-tasking)

~~~
VikingCoder
No, that's not how any of this works.

Google has terms of use on their service.

You are violating those terms of service.

This is completely cut and dry.

~~~
frenchy
> Google has terms of use on their service.

> You are violating those terms of service.

That's not what piracy means, and that's not how the law works. If I state
that the terms of service of reading this comment are that you must hop on one
leg for the rest of your life, and you continue to walk on two, you won't be
violating any laws.

~~~
VikingCoder
I didn't say you're violating laws (but you may well be violating DMCA
sections), I said you're violating terms of service. The expectation could be
that they halt your use of the service, block access to their other service,
and may disable your account.

OP claimed, "It's my own right to save those packets(without re-distributing)
them and watch them in any form I like." That is not accurate. He doesn't
magically GAIN COPYRIGHT over content, just because he downloaded it. His use
MAY be covered by Fair Use Laws, but it may also still be a violation of
YouTube's Terms of Service.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Google is willfully sending the data. If they want stricter access controls
it's their job to implement them. TOS isn't a binding contract since one side
never gets a chance to negotiate terms.

~~~
VikingCoder
Yes, and if they start identifying Google accounts that share the IP of a
device violating YouTube TOS and disabling those accounts, some people will be
very sad.

They should at least consider the possibility. Go in with open eyes, so to
say.

This story comes to mind:

[https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/239728-google-suspends-
ac...](https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/239728-google-suspends-accounts-
used-resell-pixel-phones-profit)

~~~
heavyset_go
> _Yes, and if they start identifying Google accounts that share the IP of a
> device violating YouTube TOS and disabling those accounts, some people will
> be very sad._

If this happens, even more people will take their eggs out of Google's basket.
I've already migrated my email to another provider and use Searx[1] for
search.

[1] [https://github.com/asciimoo/searx](https://github.com/asciimoo/searx)

~~~
VikingCoder
Feel free to not use YouTube.

If you do use it, please don't violate the TOS, because it increases the
chances you'll screw it up for everyone else (me). People who violate TOS are
why we can't have nice things.

~~~
heavyset_go
Nah, I'll use it as I please. Your sensibilities are your own, and not mine.

~~~
VikingCoder
I'm not worried about your sensibilities. I'm worried that your actions may
indirectly cause harm to me.

~~~
heavyset_go
Oh well, too bad.

------
de6u99er
YouTube is one of the worst Android apps in regards of usability, accidental
clicks, and anoying ads.

It would be great if there was a way installing the app without allowing third
party sources.

Haven't developed on Android since years. Does anyone know if I can build it
and upload it via ADB without enabling apps from 3rd party sources.

~~~
microcolonel
As a YouTube Premium user it's a lot less annoying, but what's frustrating for
me is it not being simple to go back to a video after accidentally exiting it
(where in a browser you would just go back to that tab, or press back or
whatever).

Also the application crashes all the time, especially when switching to play
in the background (locking the screen, switching apps, etc.); and as of
Android 10 on my device it introduces a delay when switching to background
play, which interrupts the audio (it didn't do this on Android 9).

~~~
greenshackle2
Oh yeah the back button UX is bad. If you do multiple searches in a row, the
back button doesn't exit the search screen, it goes back through your
searches. But if you're watching a video and accidentally click on a different
video, the back button doesn't take you the the previous video, it goes to the
home screen.

This is the opposite of what I want, the search bar has a scroll menu with the
most recent searches anyway, I really have no need to traverse my search
history.

------
factorialboy
This is why, despite all its shortcomings, Android still is a more open
platform compared to iOS. Big thanks to F-Droid and the open source Android
community.

~~~
benhurmarcel
Would it be forbidden by Apple to publish a similar app for iOS?

~~~
samtheprogram
I had another comment refuting the GP (as you are), but the more I thought
about it, I decided to delete the comment.

At the end of the day, you have to pay $99/year to publish on the Apple App
Store, and on Android, although Google has had some shady practices around
automatically flagging/removing apps from it's store, you have more options in
terms of app distribution, such as F-Droid.

To my (now deleted) comment's point though, I don't see much of a relation
between F-Droid and NewPipe, besides that F-Droid hosts it.

EDIT: other comment on this thread answers that last point I made and your
question, and sums up what NewPipe has to do with the "openness" of the
platforms [1]. However, I now wonder, what is stopping Google/YouTube from
going after NewPipe & F-Droid?

1:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23874943](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23874943)

~~~
m4rtink
Not just the money & the need to obtain another protform for app development
(MacOS) but also the te inability to public GPL apps on app store (if you
manage to get that far):

[https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-
store...](https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-store-gpl-
enforcement)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12827624](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12827624)

------
2bitencryption
something I've always wondered:

why hasn't anyone built a fully-featured desktop Youtube front-end experience?
With, like, borderless floating video (a la Firefox's floating video feature),
dimming the desktop, a search experience that doesn't bombard you with
clickbait garbage, etc?

it seems like Youtube.com is really just a fancy mp4 player, targeting static
video content.

does Youtube actively do anything to prevent such clients from existing?
What's their stance on them? Will they one day change the service so the video
stream urls are generated randomly, or obfuscated, and break every 3rd party
client?

~~~
jedimastert
> With, like, borderless floating video (a la Firefox's floating video
> feature)

If your referring to Picture in Picture, it was implemented for Chrome via an
official extension

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/picture-in-
picture...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/picture-in-picture-
extens/hkgfoiooedgoejojocmhlaklaeopbecg)

~~~
hombre_fatal
Problem with PiP is that just grabs the <video> stream and not the subtitles
overlay. It's why I use a Netflix desktop client.

~~~
jedimastert
A good point and also something I'm not a fan of

------
Flollop
Youtube Vanced is another ad-free client (albeit not open source) that you can
login with your Google account: [https://vanced.app/](https://vanced.app/)

------
godot
I used this a bit on a previous Android phone I had. (I still use Android, but
am on a newer one now) It sounds good in theory but had a lot of rough edges
that made me just go back to regular Youtube. I remember running into a lot of
hiccups going full screen and not full screen, or rotating screens, or moving
forward or backward on a video. Nothing was completely breaking but it was all
minor issues like switching between full screen and not either stops a video
or throws you back etc. Maybe I never got used to it.

And most of all, and this is weird to admit on HN, I kind of enjoy Youtube's
algorithm of recommending videos -- it actually presents content that I would
be interested in. Every time I opened Newpipe it was just a random mishmash of
stuff, maybe it's what's on the default Youtube homepage or something, but
it's never something I'm interested in. It's nice for when I want to
explicitly search for something to watch, but not if I want to just open up
the app and tap some random video to start watching.

I'll just add a side note that I don't watch political videos or anything and
it's not about echo chamber or bubbles. I just watch videos about old video
games (think AVGN etc.) or listen to music by artists I enjoy, and those are
the videos that show up on my Youtube which is nice.

~~~
djeiasbsbo
There is a setting to automatically switch to the Picture-in-Picture player
when one switches to other apps or presses the back button.

So i've never had those issues, because videos simply never stopped playing!

------
sn41
Of all things I am grateful to NewPipe for, the best is that I am able to turn
off the screen of my mobile while listening to Podcasts hosted on YouTube, and
also to run it in the background. Thank you, developers!!!

------
fireattack
I have tried NewPipe, but I guess I'm not its target user.

I use YouTube frequently, but I almost always just watch my subscriptions.

By not having a login system, it is basically rendered useless despite how
nice it is to be ad-free and having a much cleaner UI

(I knew you can import subscription, but I sub and unsub channels constantly
so it becomes a pain very quickly.)

I'm currently using YouTube Vanced instead.

~~~
nonbirithm
Well, I've been there with having to implement Google's login outside Google,
and I can say that it is most definitely non-trivial.

To get the official Google token, you _must_ go through a massive wad of
obfuscated JavaScript in a browser VM. It uses a thing called "BotGuard" for
which barely any information is available online to prevent automated logins,
and apparently the code changes on every request to the login form. I know
this from poking around at the page source and seeing a blurb advertising
their credential security division slipped in at the top, like they just
_know_ that the only way you're getting that token is if it's exactly how
Google and that security division wanted you to, and they felt the need to
inform everyone attempting to reverse engineer the thing by looking at the
source what they think of their effort.

This is the reason why we don't have Google login in another unofficial
YouTube frontend called invidious[1] and youtube-dl[2].

That's right, not even _youtube-dl_ can handle logging in to YouTube since
about April 2019. That was about the time that Google apparently got around to
patching their auth endpoint so you have to run their obfuscated JavaScript if
you want in. Since then scores of issues reporting 400 responses from trying
to download Watch Later or private playlists were posted on youtube-dl's
tracker, collected in the issue I mentioned. Their response? Close it as a
duplicate without, well, any other response. None as of present writing, eight
months later. Exactly the same response as nearly every other issue reporting
the same error.

That is a misstep on youtube-dl's part, and has greatly affected my impression
of the project's leadership, but part of me also thinks that they don't want
to admit that it's nearly impossible to get past a system Google specifically
designed to be impossible for third-party clients to get past.

[1] [https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/issues/754](https://github.com/iv-
org/invidious/issues/754)

[2] [https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-
dl/issues/23860](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/23860)

~~~
fireattack
Yeah, I understand it's a technical limitation.

Just a thought: maybe it could add a function to just sync user's
subscriptions via scraping their user page? Of course this requires you to
make it public, but at least it would provide an additional option.

------
rtcoms
Somewhere I read that using such apps may get your account blocked by google.

not sure how much truth in that, but I've avoided using such apps because of
that.

~~~
ffpip
I've used this from the start. Btw you don't need to give your google account
to use this in any way. It is a fully functional (better) youtube client.

~~~
cperrine
Yeah, you don't have to log in, you just download a subscription list file
from YT and stick it in the client.

------
djeiasbsbo
I absolutely love NewPipe but I do think that it progresses very slowly and
that might be why it is often ignored for the other popular pip youtube
client, youtube vanced.

Maybe it is just the rate at which binaries get released... For example, it
has had comments support for some time now but only for top level comments.
However, iirc the pull request that introduced this also had an example
implementation of _fully working_ comment support. So why is this not yet
implemented?

I recognise that I should probably just build from master or some dev branch
which has more features myself...

------
andretti1977
I'm completely against Google usage of personal informations and hate annoying
and bad ux on official YouTube app but, to be honest, ads support creators
with revenue so when you "avoid ads", you are harming creators too, not only
Google.

I think that if you don't like YT app and advertising, you simply shouldn't
use YouTube.

~~~
seaish
Everyone I follow on YouTube that is trying to make any money there uses some
other form of revenue. Mostly embedded ads, affiliate links, sponsorships, and
merchandise. These work regardless of whether you watch Google's ads.

~~~
Godel_unicode
...in addition to YouTube ad monetization. You know how important YouTube ads
and prime are because of how much those same creators scream when they get
demonitized.

------
halflings
Serious question: What is the ethical argument for watching videos ad-free
this way vs paying for YouTube Premium? (as long as it's available in your
country, and you can afford it)

By removing ads, you're viewing content without paying back in any meaningful
way. You might say that you give donations to the content creators you
_really_ like, but I don't find that very convincing (you cannot donate to
every small YouTuber you ever encounter while browsing, not all content
creators churn out 100s of videos).

Besides, it probably costs a ton of money to store/process billions of videos
each month, and stream billions of 1080p (or even 4K) of videos to all
devices.

I understand people are fundamentally against ads (I also find them life-
sucking and extremely obnoxious), but there is an option that does just that
while fairly contributing back into the ecosystem that produces your content.

------
m45t3r
Nice. Just discovered that you can open videos from the official YouTube
client by using the "Share" menu and selecting NewPipe. It has multiple
options, including download/open/open as popup.

This make it much more useful for me, I can still have access to my YouTube
account but I can open the actual videos in NewPipe and skip ads/have more
control of the playback options.

Also, this bug from official YouTube app does not happen in NewPipe, making it
much more useful to me since I use a custom caption settings because Amazon
Prime Video (but they look horrible in official YouTube app because there is
no outline):
[https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/e935yz/bug_caption...](https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/e935yz/bug_captions_in_youtube_android_app_has_no/)

------
ciarannolan
The only thing that's stopping me from using these Youtube alternative apps is
fear of my Google account being banned.

~~~
art4ur
Good news. There is no login. It's not tied to your Google account.

~~~
ciarannolan
Google can see that I'm running an app that bypasses their ads while
downloading their content, and they know my Google account.

Using NewPipe is just crossing your fingers and hoping they never decide to
make use of those two pieces of information.

------
vsviridov
An excellent app. Plays stuff in the background and has a built-in downloader,
for those big podcasts on the go.

~~~
ffpip
It is also integrating SponsorBlock in the app. It skips sponsors, patreons
and LTT plugins within a video

Free and Open Source - [https://sponsor.ajay.app/](https://sponsor.ajay.app/)

~~~
StavrosK
It does? Damn, that's enough to make me switch from Vanced, thanks!

------
smashah
Awesome! This type of app will always lead to greater conversions for Youtube
Premium. I had Youtube vanced and could not live without those features but I
also wanted to support creators so I got Youtube Premium and never looked back

------
xbkingx
Looks nice, but no ability to set default playback speed means I'll stick with
(the rarely updated) Vanced. I never watch YT content at <1.25x speed unless
it's to hear a music track.

It also looks like it doesn't have the option to login and sync, so I'd be
seeing already watched stuff on between desktop and mobile. I understand why
some people wouldn't want that, but I use the feature all the time and would
like the option.

I might try it as a kind of backup app for things I want to track, but don't
want suggestions for (mostly technical videos).

------
monokh
Incredible. The idea that YouTube artificially limits the function to get you
to do stuff is really annoying. I love that you can send the audio to the
background. I've wanted that for years.

~~~
manjalyc
IIRC they used to let you do that a decade ago, then slowly made it harder and
harder until it was impossible. Its a 'feature' now of youtube premium so take
that as you will.

------
krtkush
Excellent app.

I implemented the update notification for the GitHub APKs few years back.

------
Abishek_Muthian
To those who are looking for few convincing features over YouTube app - It has
background playback, download, pop out player all without having to sign-in to
any account.

~~~
FrenchyJiby
All lovely features, the killer for me is support for playback speed
adjustment (percent), pitch adjustment, and skipping silence in audio!

Perfect for podcasts: run playlist in background at x2 with "skip silences"
on.

------
eutropia
This is a side note, but: I tried to install newpipe (by first installing F
Droid), and Google prevented my pixel 3 from doing so because I am a user of
Advanced Protection Program.

The OS has application permissions for apps: why is a feature designed to
protect my account (and only my account) preventing me from independently
installing free and open source software?

------
betamaxthetape
Another major advantage (for me) of NewPipe over any official app is that it
supports other services (such as SoundCloud).

I find the ability to seamlessly switch between services, and create playlists
containing both YouTube videos and SoundCloud audio, to be a complete game-
changer.

I doubt I could easily go back to the official YouTube app now.

------
tracker1
Don't seem to be able to snag it via F-Droid, the app seems to be 2yo without
updates... May look again later.

~~~
itsnotlupus
It's definitely there, and updated often:

NewPipe (Lightweight YouTube frontend) -
[https://f-droid.org/app/org.schabi.newpipe](https://f-droid.org/app/org.schabi.newpipe)

~~~
tracker1
When I'd click on the link, I get download failed... and the version I'm
seeing on F-Droid was 2yo... I did download and install via the github
repo.... may play with it a bit more later.

F-Droid definitely wasn't a recent one when I tried (in the comment above) it
now seems to be showing more recent ones on my phone... I don't use f-droid
often, so may have been a syncing/update issue or something else.

------
firefwing24
I've been following this app for a while, and for a long time I was using a PR
version of the app that kept the subscription list in order of time (which
didn't exist for a really long time). But they finally merged it a while back,
so the published app finally became usable for me.

------
odiroot
Oh they finally fixed the audio desync bug
([https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/3550](https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/3550))

It was a big pain for me. Made the app unusable.

------
bitwize
Remember, "your contract with the network when you get the show is you're
going to watch the spots." If Google catches you attempting to circumvent ads,
they are within their rights to consider you a thief and treat you
accordingly.

~~~
userbinator
I bet if they can catch you closing your eyes or turning away or _thinking of
something else_ , they would.

They are absolute scum.

------
bilekas
The app sounds good from the comments, but can you drill a bit more as to how
you're filtering out the adds ?

Is it a remote proxy to filter ? Local lists of blaclist etc.

Some more info would be cool

Edit : The comments are so good I'm more suspicious! :D

------
on_and_off
I wonder how long this is going to stay up ?

Google can't be too happy that people access their service without paying
either with eyeball time for advertisers or money for Youtube Red or whatever
it is called today

------
EGreg
Wait what, how does YouTube just serve its video streams to any client?

~~~
noisem4ker
They serve their website to any browser, and NewPipe presents itself as one.

------
pengaru
Anybody know why YouTube doesn't plug the ad-bypassing loophole of fetching
the content directly youtube-dl style? I presume this NewPipe client is doing
something similar...

~~~
userbinator
Could they? I suppose they could concatenate ads into the video files
directly, sort of like an old TV "stream"...

...except I have a decades-old VCR that can skip those too, so the technology
today could probably deal with that pretty easily.

"ad-bypassing" is essentially choosing not to consume content; while most if
not all DRM and other protections are for preventing people from consuming
content, preventing them from _not_ consuming content is nearly impossible
unless you essentially have control over their minds.

------
dennisy
There are people whose living is made from YouTube and it’s advertising
component.

Whilst I would personally prefer videos with no ads, is this not stealing?

I would be very interested to hear this groups view on why this is morally ok.
Also what alternatives there should be to an ad revenue model for YouTube type
sites.

~~~
umvi
> Whilst I would personally prefer videos with no ads, is this not stealing?

The usual response you'll get is "is it stealing if I go to the bathroom
during a TV ad break?" or "that's why content creators have in-video paid
sponsorship blurbs"

I personally think those are flimsy justifications though. I think it's
stealing to bypass ads when the company hosting the service has a clear avenue
for paid ad-free viewing.

It would be like creating an app that streams the free-tier of Crunchyroll ad-
free while still using Crunchyroll's bandwidth. Dishonest.

~~~
colordrops
If there's a publicly exposed service with no authentication or security in
place, it is not the fault of an individual for using it. It's clearly not
illegal, and neither is it unethical. If YouTube wants to protect their
service from unauthorized use, they are perfectly capable of doing so.

~~~
umvi
One time when I lived in Rome, I was near Ostia and I saw a public water
fountain. The funny thing though was that someone had attached a water hose to
the water output and then ran the hose into their house. Free water!

"If there's a publicly exposed service with no authentication or security in
place, it is not the fault of an individual for using it. It's clearly not
illegal, and neither is it unethical. If [the city of Rome] wants to protect
their [water service] from unauthorized use, they are perfectly capable of
doing so."

I disagree that it is not unethical. I would hope most people recognize that
abusing a free service to avoid a paid service _is_ unethical.

~~~
colordrops
Your analogy is flawed in that there are likely laws protecting used of the
water of that fountain. Not so with an open service on the internet.

Further more, it's not an ocean sized fountain run by a monopolistic
corporation and one of the only places to get water, with simple technology to
restrict who can get water if the corporation so decided.

~~~
umvi
> Your analogy is flawed in that there are likely laws protecting used of the
> water of that fountain. Not so with an open service on the internet.

All analogies are flawed. I would hope the difference between something being
ethical and unethical is more than just a law.

Again... abusing a free service to avoid a paid service is (usually) unethical
and dishonest, regardless of legality. Doesn't matter if you are plumbing your
house with public water intended for tourists, filling your backpack with all
the honey packets from all the Chick-Fil-A's so you never have to buy honey
again, or buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of $1 coins from the
government with credit cards so you can profit off of taxpayers. It's abuse of
a free service, and it's unethical.

~~~
colordrops
It's only unethical if you strongly support the current economic policies and
incentive structures for large corporations. I and many others do not. They do
not deserve the tax perks and monopolies granted them and their banker
financiers that let them build so much wealth on the backs of the lower
classes.

Also, why don't they just protect their endpoints with authentication? It
would be simple. They choose not to. There is not an easy way to protect
public water or Chick-fil-A honey packets, so ethics is the main mechanism.
Not so with internet services. There are countless well tested mechanisms for
this.

~~~
Fogest
"endpoints with authentication" \-- Because you don't have to login to watch
YouTube...

It's not easy to block third party access, it often ends up being a whack-a-
mole style game where you block it and then they just get in using a different
method. YouTube already has been doing this.

On top of this you are taking money from the creators of the content, not just
YouTube itself and violating their terms of service.

If a service tells you not to do it, and you still do it anyway it's quite
clear you are being unethical.

~~~
colordrops
Whether a corporation tells people to do something or not is not a direct
mapping to whether something is ethical or not.

It wouldn't be wack-a-mole if they just had proper authentication instead of
using the freemium model. It's their choice to open up their APIs to
unauthenticated anonymous users due to their shady advertising revenue model,
and the costs are calculated in their models.

BTW, I've never once read or signed any agreement with YouTube, so I have no
idea what you are talking about when you say "the service tells you not to do
it".

Even if there was more prominent messaging of the sort, it's not the job of
the user to twist themselves in knots to assist wealthy rent seekers' desires
to apply ancient business models based on physical property to modern
information systems.

~~~
Fogest
I see you chose to ignore part of my reply mentioning the creators you are
taking content from without paying. YouTube does not care as much, but the
creators are the ones hurt the most, not YouTube.

~~~
colordrops
This points more to a problem with the monopolistic walled garden rather than
the user. It's like saying a slave won't have food if you shoot the slave
owner.

~~~
Fogest
I actually think you raise a very fair point and believe you have some merit
to what you believe in.

I will admit that I am not very fond of YouTube either. They have far to much
control over the income source of a good amount of people. They could on a
whim take away the monetization of a channel (which they do sometimes) and
cause them a lot of financial strain.

In terms of your slave comparison I would say a better comparison would be if
the slave owner was doing poorly the conditions the slave lives in are
worsened. This highlights that the slave does not have much chances to acquire
food on their own. I wish there was more competition but I do not believe
starving the slave of the system fixes the owner of the system.

~~~
colordrops
It is a difficult situation for creators. I do wish there were decentralized
solutions that picked up some traction.

~~~
dennisy
So if a decentralised solution picked up, but it’s model was advertising based
would you still choose to block ads?

~~~
colordrops
Yes, because the advertising model is a bane on humanity and they should just
charge a fee for their content.

------
ab_testing
What does ad-free mean? Arent ads embedded in the youtube videos itself such
that when you play a long video, multiple ads show up in the beginning, middle
and end of the video ?

~~~
mawalu
No. The ads are separate video files that get played after each other by the
browser or youtube app. Since this app is complete independent it just choose
to not play the video ads

~~~
dubya
I hadn't seen a Youtube ad in years, but now Youtube gives "An error occurred.
Please try again later." on first load in Safari on a Mac with Wipr. Reloading
without blockers gives ads before and every few minutes and some overlays.
Miserable.

It's still easy to work around, but maybe Google's getting more aggressive
about blockers.

~~~
catalogia
uBlock Origin in Firefox still successfully blocks all ads. Also, youtube-dl
continues to work and doesn't download the ads, so media players like mpv can
play youtube videos and will never show an ad.

------
starlig-ht
How are they able to legally not have ads? How is that not theft?

~~~
Sephr
This is legally equivalent to a custom browser with pre-installed ad-blocker
extensions.

------
causality0
I'm quite enjoying NewPipe but it cries out for one killer feature: being able
to swipe videos off your What's New feed to whittle it down.

------
deostroll
So why can't people alternatively create a website on the similar theme:
YouTube with no ads. Is this against Youtube's TOS?

------
antpls
I only keep youtube app for the livestreams. Livestreams on NewPipe don't
allow you to replay back several hours behind.

------
KaoruAoiShiho
Can someone do a comparison to Vanced? Been using vanced for a long time,
what's here that's worth switching.

~~~
BlameKaneda
I use Vanced and if I recall correctly, NewPipe doesn't port your YouTube
playlists over. I save music to playlists so not having that feature would've
been a huge pain.

------
avipars
Worthwhile checking YouTube Vanced too. It looks and acts more like youtube,
but newpipe has it's benefits too

~~~
dastx
Vanced is a modded YouTube official app. Some premium features enabled and
removed ads.

------
Nextgrid
Related: [https://invidio.us](https://invidio.us)

~~~
torresjrjr
Barely related: Twitter frontend for privacy. Disables Javascript.

[https://nitter.net/](https://nitter.net/)

~~~
chewzerita
If you want to auto redirect to these sites (and I think there is one for
instagram as well), check out the Privacy Redirect addon[0].

[0] [https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-
redirect](https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect)

------
mnming
it seems to be a great app. gonna be a big conscience challenge for me though.
I always feel that my guilt of blocking ads on desktop can be compensated by
allowing ads on mobile... (i know it's hypocrisy to most ppls opinion)

------
dirtyid
Somewhat related:

Is anyone familiar with youtube.videodeck.net / pockettube? Aggregates
channels into subscription columns like RSS. Like old youtube collections.
I've been using the service for years and have yet to see anyone else
replicate the feature.

~~~
mqus
I'm not familiar with your examples, but NewPipe allows you to group your
subscriptions and then show the latest videos from each group, sorted by
upload date/time (or something similar).

What it misses from a usual RSS reader is the notifications (idk maybe they
exist and you only have to turn them on) and the "read"/"viewed" marker.

------
Giorgi
It looks good but rarely works as intended, way to buggy.

------
swyx
noob question here - i dont know what F-droid is. Is this meant to be
installed from the Play Store or do i have to "jailbreak" my android?

~~~
j1elo
F-droid is an alternative App Store, dedicated to open source software.

You have to enable installing apps from "unknown sources" (an option available
in the Android menus, no root required), then install the Fdroid application,
and from now on you can revert back the "unknown sources" setting, and use
Fdroid to search and install FOSS apps, including NewPipe.

~~~
noisem4ker
On newer Android versions (8+), you have to allow the specific app from which
the install is launched (browser, file manager, third party store, ...). In
practice, not that different.

[https://developer.android.com/distribute/marketing-
tools/alt...](https://developer.android.com/distribute/marketing-
tools/alternative-distribution#unknown-sources)

------
barbs
This is my most missed app since moving to iOS.

------
inson
There is another one called Youtube Vanced

------
neycoda
This is gonna get shut down so quick.

------
mraza007
I wish this existed for iPhone too

------
webscalist
This even runs without play services

------
modzu
will this ever be on Google play? most peoppe should not be in the habit of
sideloading apps...

------
keb_
I _really_ wonder why so many innocuous, on-topic comments about NewPipe are
being downvoted in this thread. Are YouTube employees raiding HN or something?
/s

NewPipe is a great app, lighter on system resources than the official YouTube
app, free & open-source, and a joy to use especially if you're overwhelmed by
the serious UI "bloat" that YouTube has been suffering from in recent years.
In addition to being ad-free, in many other ways is it a superior video-
viewing experience.

~~~
1f60c
> Are YouTube employees raiding HN or something?

From the HN Guidelines[0]:

> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading,
> foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken.
> If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at
> the data.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a YouTube/Google employee, just someone who cares a lot
about preserving the quality of discussion HN is known for.)

[0]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
koheripbal
Is there a meta area to discuss "astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign
agents and the like", or do we just pretend they don't exist?

~~~
p49k
It seems like there should be a monthly thread where people are allowed to
openly discuss criticism (constructively).

------
ibdf
Youtube might be the only place I actually don't mind ads. Some creators on
youtube are extremely good at providing valuable content in short form - I use
it primarily as a learning platform, whether I am doing wood work, learning
how to fix something at home, or learning about a new topic. I would rather
continue to support these creators by watching ads on their own channel than
paying for a subscription that covers everything.

It's an invaluable resource and until there's something better taking the ads
away takes part of their income away.

~~~
NullPrefix
Most of these creators accept actual money

~~~
izacus
Which doesn't cover the cost of video hosting, transcoding and streaming. Or
the cost of other software development of YouTube.

If you'd ever work on anything close to video streaming industry you'd find
out that the costs of delivering video to the world is massive. And paying for
those services is how you make them sustainable (and add competition).

