alt. youtube frontend

Neither newpipe nor libretube work for me anymore for a while now. Is there an alternative?

Edit: when using my vpn it is blocked. Without von it works fine

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Grayjay
- i forget is this app proprietary? i know a lot of their apps are
  
  It's basically source available with rights to modify and redistribute for non-commercial purposes and without removing the ability to pay for the app.
  
  Here is the license.
  
  Custom license that doesn't meet the FSF's definition. Tldr restrictions on redistribution and minor restrictions on modification. It isn't on fdroid's main, but they host a fdroid compatible one with a out of date version of Grayjay
  
  It's on fdroid so I don't think
I just tried Tubular, a NewPipe fork and it works properly.
- Newpipe sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I think your case was just lucky.
  
  NewPipe stops working whenever Google updates YouTube with a breaking change that NewPipe needs to integrate then, e. g. renaming parameters, changing URLs and the like.
  
  NewPipe has been steadily working for years, with the expected interrupts as they have to play catch up with YouTube. That typically only lasts a few days, sometimes hours, though.
- It's been working for me most of the time. Tends to break when Google breaks something, but gets fixed pretty fast. For me it has been working for a couple of weeks after the last update. On TV I use SmartTube, and it has been incredibly solid.
Did you update them? I just tried newpipe and it works like it should?
Yeah, youtube breaks things all too frequently, and a lot of the time these projects can't push out updates fast enough. A lot of invidious instances sadly don't work (as of the last time I checked them, a few days ago), but a few usually work because they merge patches before upstream does. inv[dot]nadeko[dot]net comes to mind.
- Some other good instances:
  
  https://iv.nowhere.moe
  
  https://yt.dupindustries.com
  
  https://invidious.reallyaweso.me
  
  https://inv.tux.pizza
  
  I almost thought you were that bot that changes youtube links to invidious ones, lol.
  
  Yeah, those tend to be good (well, tux.pizza is a bit of an exception, it shows the error that the others fixed). It's a little annoying that a lot of the invidious instances that work won't show up when you do the "switch instance" thing on an instance that doesn't work, but it makes a bit of sense, not wanting to get overwhelmed, or trying to not get too noticed.
I'd say that your best bet is FreeTube, which got ported to Android back in 2020. I've only been using it for a few weeks, since I only got ahold of an Android device this month, but it has never let me down.

It's available on the IzzyOnDroid repo, and as an APK, so you can install it with F-Droid or Obtainium (or manually).
- That downloads directly from YouTube, and for that the best Android app by far is NewPipe and its forks, like Tubular.
  
  Neither newpipe nor libretube work for me anymore for a while now.
  
  ...except NewPipe doesn't work.
On chromecast I’ve been happy with SmartTube, which includes sponsor block and still allows me to log into YT so I get to keep my history.

In Firefox I’ve just discovered an extension called Lib Redirect, which works for YT, Reddit, Twitter, and other sites. Highly recommend.
I'm happy with Pipepipe myself, it's on the izzyondroid F-droid repo.
Newpipe works for me right now?
Newpipe is working. Just make sure you are on the latest update. YouTube broke it twice in a row not long ago. But latest update has been working for weeks now. Check the github. Looks like v0.27.2 is the latest.
Invidious, one good instance is https://iv.nowhere.moe/
- Nope
Ive been using these front ends for a while now and there are constant issues.

Ive switched to http://odysee.com

its now ad free, and Ive found that: mental outlaw, Louis Rossman, someordinarygamers, Brodie Robertson, tech lore, switched to linux, the Linux cast and loads of others are also on the platform.
- Odysee is not a YouTube front end, is a hot spring for hate content and misinformation, was financially mismanaged, and was recently sold for parts to a blockchain company whose primary goal is bolstering its own blockchain
  
  The blockchaim & finance topic doesn't really affect me, as long as I can use it for watching videos then it works. (and I'm not helping google)
  
  In regards to the hate content, I would rather have the ability to self censor these things (mute/block) then have the platform itself decide what I am allowed to see.
- What if I want to watch something other than the people who always show up at the top of the Youtube technology category page, or venture capitalist-funded yoga videos summoned to create the impression somebody is home?
tubular , which is a fork of newpipe , works for me . AFAIK its maintained by the person who used to maintain newpipe+sponsorblock
- Are there Linux versions of this that aren't apks?
  
  no , its made explicitly as an android application .
LibreTube uses Piped, which currently is getting blocked by YouTube. They're working on a way to get around it.

You can follow the progress here. It seems like they might have found a way.
Mostly all officially endorsed invidious instances work in my experience. They are using at least one, maybe two techniques for evading youtube rate limiting restrictions that piped does not (yet?) use.
Invidious currently works for me. I use this instance: https://inv.nadeko.net/
The only other alternative I know is SongTube
Revanced is still going strong on android
- For sure, because it's fetching the content directly from the YouTube servers
- Am I missing something? Why is it being downvoted? I use it every day and it's an alternative frontend.

44 comments