YouTube Morphe. It's the new revanced fork after they had some drama. IIRC most ReVanced devs are working on Morphe now.
post
I use firefox with ublock origin. Its not as good as an app, but it works for me.
IMO browser is superior. What do you feel is better in an app?
Just in my personal experience, I use IronFox with Mullvad, which YouTube flags and throws the "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot" error whereas NewPipe, for example, typically works (I believe they have a workaround similar to yt-dlp that leverages the Android VR API).
I'm not gp but I also prefer the app for several reason, like being able to cast to the smart tube TV app which is also ad free and has sponsorblock, and for small UX things like certain gestures, like I can pull down on a video to go to theater mode whereas in the browser it refreshes the video page, and I like that the transitions between views don't have a brief white screen but has a seamless transition that expands a videos thumbnail into the video view.
Otherwise the UI of ReVanced is basically identical, but both are ad free and have sponsorblock / return dislike but ReVanced feels smoother to use and there's lots of customizable ReVanced settings in the app for tweaking things like haptics, downloads, hiding and showing various components like endcards, info cards, quick actions and related videos, shorts, etc.
Here's a sample of all the options it has: https://imgur.com/a/gRdd5K0
NewPipe on my phone, SmartTube on my TV
Just downloaded it and it works, thanks!
I just read up a bit and realized that PipePipe is a fork of NewPipe. In other words: NewPipe is the original 🤯
PipePipe's GitHub page says
Making a hard fork allows us to effectively address issues with quick fixes and maintain frequent feature updates
It's ironic that PipePipe was forked to adress quick fixes, and not it appears to not work at all (for me) while the original NewPipe does work.
i am using pipepipe right now and it works just fine. you probably need an update. if pipepipe is bugged, check the bug reports on the github. I'd bet someone has reported it already.
i have both pipepipe and newpipe installed, but I feel that pipepipe actually tends to be a bit better about actually fixing bugs (not related to youtube connection issues. things like UI issues, etc.)
if neither work well when updated, freetube has an android version you can always try.
I also use grayjay, but mainly for the available backends for multipe sources.
Besides yt I have my twitch subs there and the occasional bilibili and niconico channel.
No more hopping websites to watch the stuff I wanna watch. It's now all in one app.
I'm using Pipepipe. The latest version works fine for me.
Same here. At most I just gotta restart my phone because of an IP block that goes away immediately afterwards.
LibreTube works really well for me, I should finally set up my own piped instance though
Google announced you will still be able to install 3rd party apps although you will have to jump through extra hoops such as a waiting period. Newpipe will live on.
Yes they will. In the same way they are now. Users will have that waiting period, which is stupid, but NewPipe will still work.
The situation is being exaggerated, although it wasn't a first. Initially, Google declared there would be no option for users to install unverified applications. Later they announced the waiting period.
The waiting period is still a problem and it's Google taking one step closer to solidifying total control over android. But come September, users that still want to use Newlipe will be able to.
Both PipePipe and NewPipe work at this very moment. If you're having trouble because F-Droid doesn't have the latest updates you can get them from GitHub and Izzysoft instead.
On my mobile device NewPipe works but PipePipe does not.
F-Droid doesn’t have the latest updates
Just checked, the latest PipePipe version in F-Droid is 5.1.1
On GitHub, the latest release is also 5.1.1
I'll test apps on an older device and see what might suit you best then.
YouTube seems to be on a race against what they might consider freeloading and made a bothersome change nearly a month ago. I believe NewPipe and PipePipe took different approaches to bypass it but didn't imagine one of these would leave older devices out. Good to know!
libretube
I use grajay for the sync function, was unable to find anything else that could. I have it installed on mobile, PC, laptop and Steamdeck to keep the history and subscriptions synced.
Was using freetube prior to this setup with syncthing but it had problems.
pipepipe, currently working great for me. There are times it doesn't but that's YouTube's fault, not the fault of newpipe or pipepipe.
Though I wish they would fix the bug where it can't handle me moving from ipv6-only mobile network to ipv4-only home internet, I have to quit the app and relaunch it and resume the video for it to actually bother trying to resolve DNS again
same here, i actually switched to pipepipe because tubular has been having issues for a couple weeks.
Out of curiosity, which phones are you using where PipePipe is working for you?
I'm using Pixel 8 and I only get errors with PipePipe.
Morphe it's were the better revanced coders ended up after abandoning it due to differences.
It's already better than revanced ever was.
I'm new to installing apps not through the Google Play store, I'm using F-Droid now since I understood it's a trusted and reviewed repository of OSS.
Do you know why Morphe isn't on F-droid? I feel heistant to simply download and install the .apk from their website.
Because it's a patcher the same as revanced, it's basically considered piracy to remove the ads. I don't think you will find any patches on F-Droid.
If you want to only use F-Droid apps there are many like NouTube but they won't be similar to the actual YouTube app.
It's not on f-droid because it's not fully foss. It still has google's propritry binary
Grayjay mainly. PipePipe which still works for me (check if yours is updated) to get individual RSS or channel links.
Also if you watch on browsers, there's @birb@rss-parrot.net (not compatible with Lemmy specifically though)
Check out revanced!
I've also been using Re-Vanced and NewPipe for a very long time, and seeing this comment section I wonder, why have they fallen out of (relative) popularity?
I use revanced, very rarely have any issues with it. Looks and acts just like the official app, minus the ads plus the option for some other improvements like sponsorblock and re-enabling the dislike counter.
I don't watch YouTube on my phone anymore other than FireFox with uBlock. For me, it's all a YT feed aggregated by RSS and played by MPV on Linux.
I use Pipepipe to store subscriptions locally. Then when I see something I want to watch, I use ytdlp to save it on my phone to watch with vlc. Saving the video locally is so great and still has sponsorblock features.
VLC player
I have a system involving multiple devices. I download the videos with yt-dlp on my computer, then send them to my phone for mobile watching.
I'm curious, what's your setup?
I use RSSHub to generate feeds for my subscriptions, then use this trick on Thunderbird to open video links directly with yt-dlp.
I use LocalSend to move the videos (and other files) to VLC.
Tubular! NewPipe fork with SponsorBlock and ReturnYouTubeDislike built in. Tubular on F-Droid
honestly just firefox with sponsorblock and ublock.
or vivaldi if you add the easylist blocker source.
I use PipePipe, and it works for me. Have you kept it updated? Do you have F-Droid? Youtube apps need to stay up to date because of frequent API changes
In the rare case I do watch a YT video with my phone, I'm using the official YouTube app from Google, because it has all my YT Premium features and can seamlessly Chromecast to many devices.
I was paying for premium, but my subscription lapsed and I didn't even realize because all of the ads were blocked by smarttube on my TV and revanced on my phone. Chromecast functionality is nice though, when I used to use it - I don't know how to replace that
top 81 comments