LibreTube - uses Piped as video source by default. Subscriptions and playlists can be created, all without actually interacting with YouTube.
Clipious - uses Invidious as the video source. Also allows for subscribing and accounts. Lesser known client
NewPipe - Gets the source directly from YT. Allows for subscribing and creating playlists
Additionally, there’s also ReVanced that lets you patch the regular YT app to include useful features.
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I would use Libretube, but it simply doesn’t work on my phone. On PC I always use piped.
Try enabling “Use HLS” inside:
3 dots > Settings > Audio and video
Thanks. That fixed it.
Do you know, why this does fix the problem?
I was using LibreTube only as a music player and was a bit unreliable (sometimes it would crash or get stuck in infinite loading). Trying to use it for videos was impossible, since trying to skip even just 10s the video would load endlessly or just go black and freeze.
So I looked up on their github issue tracker and found this pinned.
Ah, thanks :)
I’m having great time with FreeTube Cordova lately, you have to setup the UI initially, understanding its limit for mobile, but it works very well.
Might be a dumb question but why not just use Piped?
Well, you still need a client if you’re on mobile. I’m not going to watch my video essays through a browser if I can do it through an app. I use libretube which ends up being Piped under the hood, it’s just smoother.
I also used to use revanced because it allowed me to keep a few public playlists up to date (something you can only do by interfacing with Youtube). People have their reasons for things.
This is, in fact, a dumb question
Every time I click on a Piped link that has been posted here by the bot after someone posts a YouTube link, I just wait and wait for it to start playing. Eventually I run out of patience and click the YouTube link, which starts to play immediately.
Piped also has support for accounts and LibreTube supports that too. Really nice to have your subscriptions and playlists synchronized between your devices.
youtube.com + firefox android/fennec + ublock origin + sponsorblock
A textfile with channel urls + a yt-dlp script + a self hosted jellyfin servers.
Saves on bandwidth too, you only download once and can keep your favorites saved offline as long as you have storage space.
I do run my own invidious client too for video searches and “filler” channels you watch selectively.
Oooh… I’d love a YouTube integration with jellyfin.
Tell me more.
I’d love the features of a podcast app but for YouTube creators I follow.
deleted by creator
You mean I finally have a way to watch Youtube in my Samsung TV without ads??? Ooooo I know what I’m doing tonight!
edit: naaah it won’t run on my raspberry :(
That’s exactly what i use if for. I do have a server-pc running though.
Yeah it requires a minimum of 2GB RAM. Maybe I’ll finally get that picobox
Materialious
PipePipe
Tubular
Anybody know if some of these platforms support streaming? I’ve been meaning to try out kick.com as well as a Twitch alternative but it’s still a business with proprietary solution.
Switching from Twitch to Kick is like leaving Twitter for Truth Social. Kick was started by people who were kicked off Twitch for gambling and other banned content. And I don’t just mean poker, I’m talking about those skin gambling sites where streamers were found “promoting” but really owned and were rigging their bets to make it look like you can win big.
Plus Kick’s backend uses the same Amazon services that Twitch does, so if your point is not to support Twitch and their parent company Amazon, Kick definitely isn’t the right choice.
Dang.
Peertube and owncast are Fediverse alternatives to twitch. Peertube less so. I run an owncast server and love streaming to it, but discovery is shit. If you just want to stream, it’s great. If you want to make it a job, stick to twitch
I know this is /c/android but semi related for desktop I’ve been using and loving Freetube for a good while now.
Make sure you go through all the settings though (like sponsorblock), I recommend base theme “catppuccin mocha” btw
NewPipe subscriptions can also be imported into Free tube to get it in sync with your phone subscriptions.
Be sure to use NewPipe with sponsor block (forked project). Although this had been giving me trouble and there’s another fork called Tubular that works great.
I also want to drop Grayjay in here. It supports YouTube and can also be used to view other platforms like Twitch, Odysee, PeerTube, etc. It uses plugins, so you can develop a plugin for the video platform you want to be able to use in Grayjay. Grayjay also has this Polycentric “decentralized” database so that you can comment and like the videos in those aforementioned platforms.
I use Tubular. It’s a fork of newpipe that has sponsor block.
It’s good and everything (although it was a bit rough around the edges here and there), but is a no-go for me personally, unless they’ve changed their license. When I last checked it wad not open source, but merely source available since the license basically said you’re not allowed to modify the source code period. AGPL would’ve been a far better choice
Totally understandable. I mean, it’s still in alpha and yes I do encounter bugs sometimes. I honestly just use it because I can have my feed in grayjay as well.
Anyone know of something for Windows or Linux like grayjay that access multiple platforms?
They’re working on a desktop app. But otherwise, no.
If LibreTube is not working for you (the reader, not OP), enable HLS here:
3 dots > Settings > Audio and video > Use HLS
See this.
That’s what I remember doing when I set it up, is this due to differences in CDNs across continents?
From issue thread.
Wait, revanced works again?
Yes! Installing the latest version of microG from ReVanced’s github and repatching the app did the trick when it stopped working a couple months ago
My god, I am in tears. Praise the lords of FOSS.
It stopped working?
I have used it since vanced died and while it does occasionally break, all you usually need to do is download a new APK and repatch.
Sure does. I’ve been using it for a few months.
Normal stopped a while ago but extended is working well
Regular ReVance works just fine. Installed it to my wife’s phone just earlier today.
I saw it had an update. For a little while it wasn’t working right so I swapped to extended and that’s been running fine.
This was me when Invidious and Piped were being attacked by Youtube and Newpipe had a hiatus.
Tubular is a Newpipe fork with Sponsor Block integrated for anyone interested.
That’s a sweet icon pack
Ty, the pack ia called Arcticons if you want to test it.
I’ll add these to the list if you don’t mind:
FYI, SmartTubeNext has been renamed to just SmartTube.
Nice. Thanks for that. Let me fix my post.
Grayjay is propertiary. Just giving a heads up
I thought it was FOSS? Here their GitHub. I’m not an expert in licenses and all that, but it looks like it has even been forked. You can’t even see proprietary, let alone fork it. I could be wrong, though. Correct me if I’m wrong, please.
It has a joke of a license that certainly isn’t free. It onky alpows you to see the source code aka it ia “source availible” not opwn source nor free
I see. I think Louis Rossmann (he works for Futo, the company behind this app and other FOSS apps) said in a video that they’ll eventually open source it? I don’t remember exactly.
Yup. And they still haven’t.
We need to hit him up about it on one of his videos. They do advocate for FOSS all the time. They even pay people create FOSS apps. Not sure why not this one.
I don’t like Louis enough to care enough sorry
Newpipe has to be the choice for android. Also, Tubular is a pretty neat fork that adds sponsorblock and return youtube dislike
This needs to be higher.
Thank you so much for this. I have been using NewPipe sponsorblock and it’s been discontinued and haven’t been able to find anything else.
Tubular is actually the successor to NewPipe x SponsorBlock. It’s made by the same developer.
Ah, makes sense why it’s a carbon copy of it. Glad they’re back at it. I’m curious to know why change to a new app.
FreeTube on Android? Where do I find that?
I can’t seem to find it anymore :/
It’s in the IzzyOnDroid repo: https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/io.freetubeapp.freetube
And you can also get it from GitHub through Obtainium
Thank you
I think I’ve seen it on f-droid before
FreeTube Cordova it is called
Still in development but Lighttube seems interesting and uses its own backend.
I’ll also plug SmartTube, an Android TV app that has many of the more widely-used functions ReVanced has (blocks ads, supports SponsorBlock, etc.) among other things.