7mo ago

Free and open-source YouTube clients w/ no ads

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.

116 comments

I'll add these to the list if you don't mind:
GrayJay for Android
FreeTube for desktop and also works on Android.
SmartTube for your Amazon fireTV and Google tvs and the likes
NewPipe for Android.
- 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.
- Newpipe has to be the choice for android. Also, Tubular is a pretty neat fork that adds sponsorblock and return youtube dislike
  
  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.
  
  This needs to be higher.
- FreeTube on Android? Where do I find that?
  
  FreeTube Cordova it is called
  
  I think I've seen it on f-droid before
  
  I can't seem to find it anymore :/
- FYI, SmartTubeNext has been renamed to just SmartTube.
  
  Nice. Thanks for that. Let me fix my post.

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.
- 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.
- I use Tubular. It's a fork of newpipe that has sponsor block.
- Anyone know of something for Windows or Linux like grayjay that access multiple platforms?

Materi alious
\ Pipe Pipe
\ Tubu lar

All I want is an ad-free YouTube app that lets me cast on Chromecast directly.
So far nothing worked properly. Any ideas? I'm using a Pixel 4A.
- Grayjay, it has all those features.
  
  I'll give it a shot
  
  Not FOSS
- Doesn't ReVanced work?
  
  Revanced casting doesn't work for me
  
  I tried, it worked locally but I couldn't cast on Chromecast
  
  SkyTube Extra has Cast support
- I use WebVideoCaster on roku for this.
  
  But I don't have Roku
- SkyTube Extra has Google Cast support, but make sure to download it from GitHub (e.g. through Obtainium). The F-Droid version doesn't have the cast feature, because it depends on a proprietary Google library, which is not allowed on F-Droid.

I've been using pipe-viewer (formerly/alternatively youtube-viewer) for years. It's an extremely minimal yet feature-rich and customizable perl youtube client, designed to be used without a google api key (If you want to use an account, use youtube-viewer instead). No other client I've tried comes close in my experience (I've tried Freetube (bloated), Minitube (buggy, feature incomplete, uses embedded player), Newpipe (restricted to android)).
Also works great on mobile, and can be used with a Gtk-perl client for people who want a graphical client. It can also be used with any native video player, like mpv or mplayer (and adding an unsupported player is trivial in the config).
Demo:
- There's also invidtui, which uses the Invidious API. You can simply use it with your favorite video player (e.g. mpv or VLC). Invidious is also very light on resources, so you could host your own instance. Even locally on your machine using Docker. Or go with youtube-local.
- The borderless UI is so good, honestly. Do you know if there's a way to alter the player control UI? Am wanting to get into ricing and that looks like it provides a great solution for some minimalist ideas I'm having.
  
  The window decorations in my video are provided by cwm, not the player. The player UI is just default mpv.

Using Tubular, which is a fork of newpipe with sponsorblock integration. It's a bit buggy but I like not having to skip every sponsor

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.
  
  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 :(

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.
- Sure does. I've been using it for a few months.
  
  Normal stopped a while ago but extended is working well
- 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.

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.

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'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.

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?

Tubular: A fork of NewPipe (Github) that implements SponsorBlock (Github) and ReturnYouTubeDislike (Github). https://github.com/polymorphicshade/Tubular?tab=readme-ov-file#a-fork-of-newpipe-github-that-implements-sponsorblock-github-and-returnyoutubedislike-github

Still in development but Lighttube seems interesting and uses its own backend.

Libretube seems to almost never work for me no matter what instance i try.
Also worth adding Smarttube for AndroidTV
- Try enabling "Use HLS" inside:
  3 dots > Settings > Audio and video
  See this.

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.

But it's still going to Google's server this traffic. I'd like something that is not YouTube but then there are no creators on these other places. Maybe I'll buy one of those nebula/floatplane stuff?

Is there any eli5 guides to things like f-Droid or the other platforms(?) (it used to be called 'rooting', don't know what it is now) to be able to install LibreTube? Following the faq link from github, I see 3 download options, one I recognize as f-Droid, and 2 others.
I realize this should be "android 101", but my ability to problem solve stuff like this is slipping away from me. (protect your brain, kids!).
- Most F-Droid stuff AFAIK should be pretty plug and play. It'll download an APK which you then just open in order to install the app. You may need a file browser app if your phone OS doesn't come with one. You may also need to allow installs from third party somewhere in the settings. But android isn't like iOS and won't generally restrict your ability to install whatever you want, outside of an options popup to make sure you know what you're doing.
  I don't use LibreTube personally and can't speak on that specifically though, if it does something other than just download you an APK file.

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?
  
  To fix 1002 errors Piped project disabled ump with this commit: TeamPiped/Piped-Backend@d5572d7
  Which breaks DASH for some reason
  From issue thread.

any app that can also show recommended videos?

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.
- 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.
- This is, in fact, a dumb question

Piped also has support for accounts and LibreTube supports that too. Really nice to have your subscriptions and playlists synchronized between your devices.

Go ahead and join LibreTube's Lemmy community: !libretube@feddit.rocks

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

116 comments