8 ms·

LibreTube: Alternative YouTube front end for Android built with Piped

128 points by marcodiego 5y ago

gotostatement 5y ago
could google interfere w/ the API's that are used to make this work?
- rektide 5y ago
  sure, absolutely. ultimately though their clients generally are pretty reversible & we can keep doing whatever they do, but better and improved. which is what makes humanity & society great- iteration & refinement & self-determinism. try as the sad pathetic squalid soulless ghouls might, the attempts to suppress soul & dignity are themselves usually temporary & brief regainings of control/destructions of human will.
- c0balt 5y ago
  Anytime a breaking API change happens in the API used by YouTubes frontend apps like piped[0] (the YouTube interface for this project) or NewPipe[1] tend to break too. This is mostly due the majority of these players not employing the Google YouTube API but instead accessing and/ or scraping the publicly available routes exposed for/ by the YouTube fronted. (You may also find most of the streaming aspect is similiar/ the same as youtube-dl) [0]: https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped [1]: https://newpipe.net/ https://newpipe.net/
  - moron4hire 5y ago
    Note that the YouTube API does not provide access to the media streams for videos. And while Google does provide a number of black-box-style widgets for embedding in apps or webpages, they are not suitable for all use cases. For example: every VR app that wants to include support for YouTube playback has to use a scraping tool of some kind because none of the embedding options can be rendered in 3D. EDIT: I'd love to be proven wrong here. But I've dug into the code of several open source VR apps that include YouTube playback and they all end in including youtube-dl or yt-dlp.
  - Anunayj 5y ago
    Though any breaking API changes would also break past versions of youtube's own apps?
    - c0balt 5y ago
      I know from my old devices that the youtube app at some point requires you to update it and doesn't allow old versions. They probably have some kind of deprecation mechanism for the YouTube app.
einpoklum 5y ago
How does it compare to NewPipe, feature-wise? Also, can someone describe "piped" briefly? A DDG search yields too many irrelevant results (e.g. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=piped https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=piped)
- slowbdotro 5y ago
  https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped is the code :)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
charcircuit 5y ago
This is missing too many features to be useful for me. - no live chat on streams - no personalized recommendation feed - no community posts - no membership videos / community posts - no notifications for streams / uploads / community posts / replies / reminders for upcoming streams - no shorts on the home page - no comment section - no picture in picture mode - no saving where I left off in a video - no "My Mix" - no way to make clips - no way to watch clips
- ssl232 5y ago
  It has one very useful feature though, that it's not made by Google.
  - charcircuit 5y ago
    That is meaningless to me if the app can't do what I need it to do. I don't need every feature of the YouTube app, but there is some key functionality that I need.
    - seb1204 5y ago
      Sounds like this solution is not for you then.
      - noodleman 5y ago
        I see this snooty clap back every time someone dares give any criticism of youtube alternatives. "Lacking Google" is not a feature, nor does it make up for lacking features most users would call fundamentally necessary.
        seanw444 5y ago
        Lacking Google is indeed a feature. You may not find it valuable yourself, but that alone is the reason many people use NewPipe.
        5y ago
fredley 5y ago
- RL_Quine 5y ago
  Except for it being unmaintained.
- ChrisClark 5y ago
  But they've stopped development on it, and it's only a matter of time until it's dead due to Youtube changes.
- Namidairo 5y ago
  They're shutting up shop and pulling all their builds soon. The assumption being YouTube may have finally sent a cease and desist.
  - fredley 5y ago
    Oh shit thanks, I didn't know
    - detaro 5y ago
      see also https://telegra.ph/Vanced-Discontinuation-03-19 https://telegra.ph/Vanced-Discontinuation-03-19
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Gucio 5y ago
  The official website is (was) https://vancedapp.com/ https://vancedapp.com/ youtubevanced is not official, watch out
- danShumway 5y ago
  This seems like a bad idea. People can stick with Vanced if they want I guess, but Vanced was shut down recently and this site doesn't make it immediately clear whether it's a fork, or a different team, or really anything about what's going on. I don't see how an app like this gets popular and becomes safe to download without Google shutting it down a second time. I don't recommend that people download a version of the app that doesn't even mention the previous takedown and doesn't mention that it is presumably being maintained by a separate group. It just seems really shifty to me, this is a huge opportunity to throw malware at people. A big part of 3rd-party software is trust, I don't like recommending an app to people where there is no chain of trust and it's not obvious to me who the developers are. And I don't see a way for whoever these people are maintaining this website to build a chain of trust without getting shut down again. I would strongly recommend using an Open Source client that isn't currently getting legal threats and that is transparent about how it's being built and distributed and who is distributing it (personally I like NewPipe, but there are multiple options). I do not recommend downloading Vanced from a random site that doesn't even reference or acknowledge the takedown, I think that's dangerous advice to give.
xanaxagoras 5y ago
I love all of the activity around this, but I just moved to Newpipe after Youtube Vanced went down. You know what I would love is a set top box for PeerTube/Odysee/Bitchute/Whatever with a simple remote control. And a way to "cast" from my privacy ROM. Sorry if off topic.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  Maybe something like this? https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext
  - xanaxagoras 5y ago
    That does look interesting and I was unaware of it so thanks for the link. I'm thinking more like a privacy first, linux based Apple TV / Android TV / Fire TV replacement. Sort of like the FreeTube linux app, but designed for the TV, and with other apps for other services.
    - khimaros 5y ago
      it sounds like you want kodi
      - xanaxagoras 5y ago
        It's been a while since I used it, lord knows I hate the interface but if it does all of that, I'll try it again soon.
  - doosdoos 5y ago
    Works really well together with the stock YouTube app. It would be nice if one of the alternative apps would be able to cast to SmartTubeNext as well.
- jeena 5y ago
  I agree with that sentiment, but even if we can't get a set top box, the least what I'd want to have is a PeerTube app for Android TV. Newpipe is half fine, but its focus on privacy and not allowing you to log in into your own PeerTube instance makes it unusable for me. I want to be able to log in to my PeerTube account on the TV and see and use it like I can do it on my computer or mobile phone. That means being able to see my subscriptions and also to see my private videos and watch them.
Shadonototra 5y ago

128 points by marcodiego 5y ago

gotostatement 5y ago

could google interfere w/ the API's that are used to make this work?

rektide 5y ago
sure, absolutely. ultimately though their clients generally are pretty reversible & we can keep doing whatever they do, but better and improved. which is what makes humanity & society great- iteration & refinement & self-determinism. try as the sad pathetic squalid soulless ghouls might, the attempts to suppress soul & dignity are themselves usually temporary & brief regainings of control/destructions of human will.
c0balt 5y ago
Anytime a breaking API change happens in the API used by YouTubes frontend apps like piped[0] (the YouTube interface for this project) or NewPipe[1] tend to break too. This is mostly due the majority of these players not employing the Google YouTube API but instead accessing and/ or scraping the publicly available routes exposed for/ by the YouTube fronted. (You may also find most of the streaming aspect is similiar/ the same as youtube-dl) [0]: https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped [1]: https://newpipe.net/ https://newpipe.net/
- moron4hire 5y ago
  Note that the YouTube API does not provide access to the media streams for videos. And while Google does provide a number of black-box-style widgets for embedding in apps or webpages, they are not suitable for all use cases. For example: every VR app that wants to include support for YouTube playback has to use a scraping tool of some kind because none of the embedding options can be rendered in 3D. EDIT: I'd love to be proven wrong here. But I've dug into the code of several open source VR apps that include YouTube playback and they all end in including youtube-dl or yt-dlp.
- Anunayj 5y ago
  Though any breaking API changes would also break past versions of youtube's own apps?
  - c0balt 5y ago
    I know from my old devices that the youtube app at some point requires you to update it and doesn't allow old versions. They probably have some kind of deprecation mechanism for the YouTube app.

einpoklum 5y ago

How does it compare to NewPipe, feature-wise? Also, can someone describe "piped" briefly? A DDG search yields too many irrelevant results (e.g. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=piped https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=piped)

slowbdotro 5y ago
https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped is the code :)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

charcircuit 5y ago

This is missing too many features to be useful for me. - no live chat on streams - no personalized recommendation feed - no community posts - no membership videos / community posts - no notifications for streams / uploads / community posts / replies / reminders for upcoming streams - no shorts on the home page - no comment section - no picture in picture mode - no saving where I left off in a video - no "My Mix" - no way to make clips - no way to watch clips

ssl232 5y ago
It has one very useful feature though, that it's not made by Google.
- charcircuit 5y ago
  That is meaningless to me if the app can't do what I need it to do. I don't need every feature of the YouTube app, but there is some key functionality that I need.
  - seb1204 5y ago
    Sounds like this solution is not for you then.
    - noodleman 5y ago
      I see this snooty clap back every time someone dares give any criticism of youtube alternatives. "Lacking Google" is not a feature, nor does it make up for lacking features most users would call fundamentally necessary.
      - seanw444 5y ago
        Lacking Google is indeed a feature. You may not find it valuable yourself, but that alone is the reason many people use NewPipe.
      - 5y ago

fredley 5y ago

RL_Quine 5y ago
Except for it being unmaintained.
ChrisClark 5y ago
But they've stopped development on it, and it's only a matter of time until it's dead due to Youtube changes.
Namidairo 5y ago
They're shutting up shop and pulling all their builds soon. The assumption being YouTube may have finally sent a cease and desist.
- fredley 5y ago
  Oh shit thanks, I didn't know
  - detaro 5y ago
    see also https://telegra.ph/Vanced-Discontinuation-03-19 https://telegra.ph/Vanced-Discontinuation-03-19
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Gucio 5y ago
The official website is (was) https://vancedapp.com/ https://vancedapp.com/ youtubevanced is not official, watch out
danShumway 5y ago
This seems like a bad idea. People can stick with Vanced if they want I guess, but Vanced was shut down recently and this site doesn't make it immediately clear whether it's a fork, or a different team, or really anything about what's going on. I don't see how an app like this gets popular and becomes safe to download without Google shutting it down a second time. I don't recommend that people download a version of the app that doesn't even mention the previous takedown and doesn't mention that it is presumably being maintained by a separate group. It just seems really shifty to me, this is a huge opportunity to throw malware at people. A big part of 3rd-party software is trust, I don't like recommending an app to people where there is no chain of trust and it's not obvious to me who the developers are. And I don't see a way for whoever these people are maintaining this website to build a chain of trust without getting shut down again. I would strongly recommend using an Open Source client that isn't currently getting legal threats and that is transparent about how it's being built and distributed and who is distributing it (personally I like NewPipe, but there are multiple options). I do not recommend downloading Vanced from a random site that doesn't even reference or acknowledge the takedown, I think that's dangerous advice to give.

xanaxagoras 5y ago

I love all of the activity around this, but I just moved to Newpipe after Youtube Vanced went down. You know what I would love is a set top box for PeerTube/Odysee/Bitchute/Whatever with a simple remote control. And a way to "cast" from my privacy ROM. Sorry if off topic.

smoldesu 5y ago
Maybe something like this? https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext
- xanaxagoras 5y ago
  That does look interesting and I was unaware of it so thanks for the link. I'm thinking more like a privacy first, linux based Apple TV / Android TV / Fire TV replacement. Sort of like the FreeTube linux app, but designed for the TV, and with other apps for other services.
  - khimaros 5y ago
    it sounds like you want kodi
    - xanaxagoras 5y ago
      It's been a while since I used it, lord knows I hate the interface but if it does all of that, I'll try it again soon.
- doosdoos 5y ago
  Works really well together with the stock YouTube app. It would be nice if one of the alternative apps would be able to cast to SmartTubeNext as well.
jeena 5y ago
I agree with that sentiment, but even if we can't get a set top box, the least what I'd want to have is a PeerTube app for Android TV. Newpipe is half fine, but its focus on privacy and not allowing you to log in into your own PeerTube instance makes it unusable for me. I want to be able to log in to my PeerTube account on the TV and see and use it like I can do it on my computer or mobile phone. That means being able to see my subscriptions and also to see my private videos and watch them.

Shadonototra 5y ago