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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 w

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 6y ago
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).
- cyberbanjo 6y ago
  About half the time I get a new error on NewPipe I just go to their FDroid.org page and download the new mi or version bump and its been sorted out.
- arrakeen 6y ago
  what's maddening for me as a premium user is that i can't turn off their Movie recommendation ads
- greenshackle2 6y ago
  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.
- jayd16 6y ago
  Your history is in the Library. Its the bottom right-most tab.
INTPenis 6y ago
The ads in youtube this past year have been a bit scary. I'm assuming some weird ads are getting past the moderators because I'm in Sweden, and it's not a big ad market maybe. Either way, I get misspelled ads, or ads that just say "18 YEAR OLD WOMEN" in some shitty 1999 font that is barely legible. Edit: I'm talking about the clickable ads interspersed between videos in the UI.
- wolco 6y ago
  An ad for "18 YEAR OLD WOMEN" is scary? They don't bite. It seems generic not really weird.
  - valvar 6y ago
    It sounds like the sort of shady ads you would get on torrent websites or image boards.
    - brnt 6y ago
      All app stores are far shadier thans torrents websites or worse, warez websites of old. App stores come with spyware, adware, and regularly mineware or worden. I visit torrent websites for peace of mind. But mostly F-droid, which has Newpipe. Both excellent and reliable and shite-free. I really don't get app stores. How did they convince everyone to install so much spy and adware?
      - djeiasbsbo 6y ago
        I don't really understand your point, F-Droid is definitely an app store. I think you must mainly mean the Google Play Store, where the situation seems really bad... As for Apple, they manually review every application. I remember iOS apps for jailbreaking getting removed incredibly quickly.
        brnt 6y ago
        F droid is an exception. Google, Apple and Microsoft app stores are the best guarantee you're installing spyware. That's what ubiquitous telemetry is after all.
shawnz 6y ago
Why don't you want to enable installation of apps from 3rd party sources? You can turn it off again after installation
7786655 6y ago
What's wrong with enabling third party sources? Apps like this are exactly why that option exists.
jraph 6y ago
Sure. Download the APK from the F-Droid website [1] and install it with adb install. If you want to build it yourself, you can build it like any regular Android app with gradle, or by following the F-Droid recipe [2] (edit: which does not provide much useful information in the case of NewPipe, but it can be a great source of information for apps that are more difficult to build, especially if you want to remove the proprietary bits / tracking parts). You won't get automatic updates, though. I encourage you to install F-Droid (that you can also install using adb install), and enable third party sources just for F-Droid (which is possible on the latest versions of Android). Or, if your bootloader is unlocked, flash the f-droid zip package and then you don't even need to enable third party apps and F-Droid will be even more enjoyable to use. [1] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/ [2] https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/tree/master/metadata/org.schabi.newpipe.yml https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/tree/master/metadata/or...
- MayeulC 6y ago
  I've found that the Magisk module for the f-droid priv-ext tends to work better than the OTA for Android 10.
  - jraph 6y ago
    Exactly. The ota was not yet updated to support android 10 last time I checked and paths have changed.
anonymousab 6y ago
For Android, I just use the standard YouTube mobile site with fennec Firefox and ublock origin. Seems to work fairly well on my old S6 for 1080p60 content and below. I suspect that's not very battery efficient though.
- djeiasbsbo 6y ago
  I highly recommend using invidio.us (or another invidious instance) instead. Also, as an ad free and non tracking twitter alternative there is nitter.net (other nitter instances exist as well).

microcolonel 6y ago

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).

cyberbanjo 6y ago
About half the time I get a new error on NewPipe I just go to their FDroid.org page and download the new mi or version bump and its been sorted out.
arrakeen 6y ago
what's maddening for me as a premium user is that i can't turn off their Movie recommendation ads
greenshackle2 6y ago
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.
jayd16 6y ago
Your history is in the Library. Its the bottom right-most tab.

INTPenis 6y ago

The ads in youtube this past year have been a bit scary. I'm assuming some weird ads are getting past the moderators because I'm in Sweden, and it's not a big ad market maybe. Either way, I get misspelled ads, or ads that just say "18 YEAR OLD WOMEN" in some shitty 1999 font that is barely legible. Edit: I'm talking about the clickable ads interspersed between videos in the UI.

wolco 6y ago
An ad for "18 YEAR OLD WOMEN" is scary? They don't bite. It seems generic not really weird.
- valvar 6y ago
  It sounds like the sort of shady ads you would get on torrent websites or image boards.
  - brnt 6y ago
    All app stores are far shadier thans torrents websites or worse, warez websites of old. App stores come with spyware, adware, and regularly mineware or worden. I visit torrent websites for peace of mind. But mostly F-droid, which has Newpipe. Both excellent and reliable and shite-free. I really don't get app stores. How did they convince everyone to install so much spy and adware?
    - djeiasbsbo 6y ago
      I don't really understand your point, F-Droid is definitely an app store. I think you must mainly mean the Google Play Store, where the situation seems really bad... As for Apple, they manually review every application. I remember iOS apps for jailbreaking getting removed incredibly quickly.
      - brnt 6y ago
        F droid is an exception. Google, Apple and Microsoft app stores are the best guarantee you're installing spyware. That's what ubiquitous telemetry is after all.

shawnz 6y ago

Why don't you want to enable installation of apps from 3rd party sources? You can turn it off again after installation

7786655 6y ago

What's wrong with enabling third party sources? Apps like this are exactly why that option exists.

jraph 6y ago

Sure. Download the APK from the F-Droid website [1] and install it with adb install. If you want to build it yourself, you can build it like any regular Android app with gradle, or by following the F-Droid recipe [2] (edit: which does not provide much useful information in the case of NewPipe, but it can be a great source of information for apps that are more difficult to build, especially if you want to remove the proprietary bits / tracking parts). You won't get automatic updates, though. I encourage you to install F-Droid (that you can also install using adb install), and enable third party sources just for F-Droid (which is possible on the latest versions of Android). Or, if your bootloader is unlocked, flash the f-droid zip package and then you don't even need to enable third party apps and F-Droid will be even more enjoyable to use. [1] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/ [2] https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/tree/master/metadata/org.schabi.newpipe.yml https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/tree/master/metadata/or...

MayeulC 6y ago
I've found that the Magisk module for the f-droid priv-ext tends to work better than the OTA for Android 10.
- jraph 6y ago
  Exactly. The ota was not yet updated to support android 10 last time I checked and paths have changed.

anonymousab 6y ago

For Android, I just use the standard YouTube mobile site with fennec Firefox and ublock origin. Seems to work fairly well on my old S6 for 1080p60 content and below. I suspect that's not very battery efficient though.

djeiasbsbo 6y ago
I highly recommend using invidio.us (or another invidious instance) instead. Also, as an ad free and non tracking twitter alternative there is nitter.net (other nitter instances exist as well).