Preferably it has SponsorBlock, and supports other platforms like Peertube
EDIT: this is for Android
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Revanced patcher. Totally customize the native YouTube app. Includes sponsor block by default.
Shameless plug
Looks pretty cool
Tubular.
Firefox with uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock.
This has been my route for the few YouTube videos I watch on my phone.
Yeah, i’ve been doing it this way for a couple of years with minimal issues. It does glitch out occasionally but nothing a browser refresh can’t fix
Freetube is the right answer for this post. AND there is an unoffical fork of Freetube for Android. I run it and have great results with it.
I use three apps, if one doesn’t work, the other two usually do. Most often all of them work very well. It’s very rare I have to switch apps these days, but things were bumpier in the past.
https://github.com/teamnewpipe/newpipe (the OG app, most reliable)
https://github.com/wizdom13/WizeStream (my current fave, best features)
https://github.com/InfinityLoop1308/PipePipe (very reliable, lots of features)
Hmm, seems that nobody has yet mentioned Grayjay.
One marketable advantage is that the sources there are deployed as plugins, instead of being precompiled into the app (like newpipe). That mainly means that if a streaming platform breaks the apps, an update is pushed faster, and you don’t have to update the whole app to get that either.
The youtube source has sponsorblock integration, and allows you to login to bypass bot checks if you get fragged too much (not required).
And yes, sources, it’s not only for youtube, but also a couple of other streaming services, togglable, again, as plugins. There is a peertube plugin also, but my concern is that i don’t see a way to change the instance URL in it’s settings, which does seem to matter since there’s login functionality (why bother? for example to avoid defederation walls of the main instance perhaps? i dunno)
There’s also an interesting feature with serverless sync of your playlists and history, should you want that, and not any less interesting integration with a closely related Polycentric project - essentially off-platform comment feed for all videos. But that’s more bells and whistles
Grayjay is the buggiest app I have ever used. It’s slow, resource-intensive, sometimes mis-measures the size of the screen and renders an unusable layout, doesn’t cache anything so you have to wait ten seconds for it to load whenever you double-tap to rewind, and I have never once gotten its headlining feature (follow creators across multiple platforms) to work.
Oh, and it got support for Widevine before it got working support for Peertube, in case you were wondering about where the developers’ priorities are with regard to open source.
I’ve never heard of “Source First License 1.1”. Is this license free & open source?
Comments about it:
GNU.org says non-free:
Open Source Initiative: no results found, for neither “source first license” nor “futo”:
This thread: Source First License not open, not submitted to OSI, anything with this license will not be hosted by F-Droid because they don’t consider it FOSS:
NewPipe all the way. Alternatively, Termux+yt-dlp is a more utilitarian solution.
I find Fennec (or some other mobile Firefox fork) with extensions to be preferable to a standalone app, but if you really want a standalone app, I also like PipePipe.
I was a big fan of Tubular (NewPipe fork) for a while since it had built in sponsorblock but it stopped getting updated and no longer works. NewPipe is my current go-to.
Tubular was forked, the fork gets updated regularly.
I’m on this boat too. I now use NewPipe for channels that don’t require SponsorBlock, and Grayjay (has SponsorBlock if you enable it) for channels that normally have many interruptions in their videos.
Android TV (YouTube Only):
Any YouTube videos I want to watch, I use yt-dlp and then load it onto Jellyfin.
pipepipe is the best imo
Does VLC still work?
I remember that you used to be able to just paste YT url in it and it would play the video.
Though that was on the computer, not the face rectangle.
Use the normal YouTube app, and patch it with reVanced (on your phone). Doesn’t directly support peer tube, but it’s an ad free experience that you can tailor to your needs (including sponsor block and more).
One doesn’t need to resort to a proprietary app when there are actual FOSS alternatives IMO. This is a FOSS community so we should be sharing and promoting FOSS, not proprietary.
ReVanced is a FOSS project, including the patches.
The YouTube app that you recommended is proprietary, and patches don’t make it FOSS. There are real FOSS apps being recommended in this thread and I don’t think it’s fair to the FOSS community to promote proprietary apps in competition with FOSS.
