YouTube Premium alternatives for mobile
Just like the title says; I'm interested in being able to sleep to YouTube without ads, but I don't fuck with their business practices and they don't deserve my money. Unfortunately, I'm also a very inexperienced pirate and I'm unsure where to look.
Edit: for clarity I'm using a OnePlus 7 Pro with earbuds
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If on Android, NewPipe is a great app. Blocks all ads and let's you create playlists and stuff.
Firefox mobile with Ublock add-on installed is good too.
This. Unlike ReVanced that requires a bunch of hacks* to work, Newpipe is easy to simply download and install.
Has all the features premium youtube has, and unlike Vanced, it uses Youtube's API to serve the content, which means Google can't shut them down (They tried, and lost the case).
Because Newpipe simply doesn't use the advertisement API, you'll never* see ads in Newpipe.
HOWEVER. Please keep in mind Newpipe is currently in spaghetti code form, and that means fixing a bug causes more to appear. They're working on a complete rewrite, aka Newpipe 2, but it'll take a while. In the meantime, you may encounter some issues if you're on the road for example.
I've had Newpipe shit itself almost always while biking, due to constant mobile connection tower changes. For those errors you need to open the app up again, and press play. It unfortunately doesn't respond to bluetooth play/stop signals in that state.
Have you tried Revanced Manager? I'm not rooted and can pretty much just download the proper version from apkmirror, select it from storage, and run the patch and then install it.
I second this, I'm not very good with tech but I figured out revanced in like 5 minutes and haven't had any errors or issues.
Thanks for this.
Does Newpipe support YouTube music as well?
I use ViMusic for the music part
Thanks! I'll check it out. YT announced a 40% price hike for me in December, so I'm looking for alternatives.
💀
ViMusic, and yep, I got it via F-droid
Newpipe is also focused on privacy so they won't support cast feature
What issues do you have with ReVanced? It works great! The only thing that's kind of a pain in the ass is that if you're rooted using KernelSU, you have to repatch the app every time you reboot. Fortunately I usually only reboot once a month when the new OTA gets released for my phone.
I've had issues that I've been able to work around.
I have previously had the error, "settings could not be applied", which I worked around by uninstalling my YouTube updates, installing the recommended version and clearing revanced manager data. I now get an error about not being able to load the original APK. I work around this by deleting the two apks in /data/abd/vanced before patching.
I'm rooted and have to repatch on each reboot. Not complaining, just want to share my experience in case it helps others.
I love revanced, and feel so thankful for it. I can't afford YT premium, without revanced I would miss out on so much great content.
Sounds very much like my experience: a wonderful project, but not without its flaws that are kind of annoying, but not a big deal for the price. :)
revanced just works (tm) though. everything aorks seamlessly and it allows yoi to get yt recommendations.
I'd rather not be on the receiving end of Google cracking down on ReVanced users. It'll happen eventually.
they'll just sue or dmca the developers again
or just keep breaking the app, like they're doing right now. (issues are usually resolved in less then 4 days though)
also if they already have you addicted to YouTube it's much more beneficial to force you off revanced back into official app rather then banning hundeds of thouthands of channels.
Is Newpipe available for iPhones? Can’t seem to find it in the App Store…
No, and it’s not available on the official Play app store for Android either.
You can install it via APK or the F-Droid open source appstore. I haven’t found anything to replace it on iPhone at all.
https://newpipe.net/
Damnit. Thank you.
If I remember right there's an app named Yattee for iOS devices, but I don't know how to install it. Maybe that could work?
The “Vinegar” app for iOS blocks youtube ads as well as adding various playback improvements.
https://apps.apple.com/au/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303229
Brave browser eliminates the ads on iOS.
When vanced went dark I downloaded a bunch to try. Libretube, newpipe, clipious, and pipepipe.
Mostly I've been using pipepipe. A fork of newpipe. It has seemed faster and less buggy from the start. It opens invidious links. It just seems to work better.
While libretube has the best import/export options (it can import playlists and bookmarks etc) it can be incredibly buggy and clunky.
How can we get Newpipe? Is it on the app store?
Grab something like Neo-Store for easier FDroid app management. Comes with a bunch of useful repositories included like Bitwarden, Newpipe. Also more user friendly interface.
https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Store
Install the fdroid app from their official website, then download newpipe from fdroid. This way the app will automatically update whenever needed through fdroid app store.
The best thing is that you can turn off the screen, so you can truly use it as a music player.
the Firefox solution is the best, you can even have the floating vid thing
its even better than the main app, with no ads