NewPipe update brings access to Live, Shorts and other content on YouTube
NewPipe is a streaming frontend for Android that supports services such as YouTube, Bandcamp or Soundcloud among others. It is a privacy-friendly ad-free player for media published on these sites.
Up until now, it was somewhat limited, as it did not support all streaming options or options that the services provided. This changes to a large degree with this week's update to version 0.26. The new release adds support for content options provided by channels on the supported platforms that NewPipe did not support previously.
On YouTube, arguably the most popular platform of choice when using NewPipe, users may now access shorts, live content, playlists and the about page next to videos.
Just open any channel while browsing YouTube in NewPipe to see the new options. These are listed as tabs at the top. Another tap opens the content and you may now play it or use it directly in NewPipe.
The type of content that is now available varies by supported platform.
Here is the overview:
- YouTube: videos, shorts, live, playlists, about (Note that YouTube does not provide upload date and duration for shorts, so they won't show up in the feed)
- PeerTube: videos, playlists, channels (for accounts), about
- SoundCloud: tracks, playlists, albums, about
- Bandcamp: albums, tracks, about
- media.ccc.de: videos, about
This major feature addition is not the only thing that is new in the latest NewPipe release. The second big addition gives NewPipe users control over the image quality of thumbnails. Set to medium quality by default, it can be set to low or high instead. Users who don't need thumbnails at all may also disable them.
This is done by selecting Menu > Settings > Content > Image Quality in NewPipe. There you find all four options listed. Note that the settings are a treasure trove for tinkerers. You may, for instance, change the type of content that each channel lists when you select it. Don't want Shorts? Just uncheck the option and it is gone immediately. There are lots of useful options in the settings like this that customize the experience.
The changelog lists other improvements. Since it is the first major release in a five month period, there is lots that has changed.
Among the changes is a selection of new high resolution options when setting the default resolution in Settings (up to 2160p), which is quite useful.
Closing Words
NewPipe is an excellent frontend for the supported streaming services. It is free of ads and tracking, and makes the entire streaming experience more enjoyable. The latest update improves the app significantly, as it unlocks additional content options that were not available previously.
Now You: do you use NewPipe or a similar app / service?
Is there no way to modify channel groups by drag and drop?
Or when viewing individual channel, show group(s) channel belongs to along with remove/add option?
Or have a list of channels with their selected group(s) visible?
Makes really cumbersome to order and reorder hundreds of subscriptions..
Great news, thanks!
And happy new year dear Martin!
I installed it and with only one interaction an ad pops up. I removed it again!!
@Arlan
“An ad pops up”
I have never had that happen to me before.
Care to share where you downloaded your copy of NewPipe from and what sort of Ad pop up it was?
@Mystique I installed it from Google Play Store on Android 14. It was a game ad.
That’s a fake version, the app isn;t officialy on the play store. So your info about the app showing ads is based upon another app that pretends to be newpipe. Not everything on the playstore is legit and further more do you really think google would allow such app on their store think about it twice xD ! The only true sources of the app are on the oficial webpage via apk or on the f-droid store.
Ah I see. Please do not judge NewPipe based on that unofficial and fake version of NewPipe as it is a very clean and reliable app at the time of writing as long as you get it directly from Github or F-Droid but as Martin has rightly mentioned, F-Droid releases are slower to be verified so you may be left hanging for a bit longer if Youtube pushes out an app breaking update to their site which is likely to happen as they try to combat apps such as this as well as adblocking so keep that in mind when you decide which path you want to go down.
If you go down the github path I can recommend using Obtainium also to manage your apps and updates for not only NewPipe but many other great apps although NewPipe does a good enough job of notifying you when there is an update and can prompt you to download the update when need be.
I would also like to mention that there was a fork of NewPipe that adds Sponsorblock to NewPipe so you can skip sponsor segments which can get excessive on some channels if you are so inclined. The fork is obviously a little slower to push out new releases after the NewPipe but as of the 30th of Dec the fork has been placed under a public archive but the developer is creating a new version of his fork and seems to be called Tubular which seems to be perhaps going off into a different direction but might be worth keeping an eye on as it will allow you to sign into your youtube account unlike NewPipe if that is something you want to do. It will still be based on NewPipe though and have a few more bells and whistles on it too.
I imagine that other apps will not be too far behind to support such things too such as LibreTube which is also very nice too and actively developed.
Both Tubular and LibreTube are officially available through github.
Be safe and enjoy your NewPipe and youtube experience.
Happy New Year! :)
@Mystique
NewPipe with SponsorBlock has already been forked:
https://git.baalajimaestro.me/baalajimaestro/NewPipe/releases
Whether or not the announced “Tubular” will amount to anything is yet to be seen. Until then, I am using the updated fork.
@Iron Heart
Great Tip! Thanks!!
I was actually thinking that the current fork was fine enough and didn’t need any extra complications. I’m still keen to see where Tubular goes but its nice to have a lean and clean fork.
Speaking of lean and Clean FossifyOrg released a new version of their Simple Mobile Tools Fork yesterday, this now being their 3rd release. It seems to be working fine and the developer seems active enough.
You installed it from the Google Play Store, didn’t you?
Yep
Did you install it from the official source? Did the ad come from YouTube or NewPipe? NewPipe does not have ads.
@Martin Brinkmann. Ah, I have to install the APK from Github. I will give it a try again. Is F-Droid an option?
F-Droid is an option, but the releases are delayed somewhat there. Best option is to install directly from GitHub, or use F-Droid, if you don’t mind waiting a bit longer for updates.
@All. Thanks!Got it on F-droid and did an update. I’ve now got version 0.26.1.
Best option is to just download it from the official site https://newpipe.net/#download and not scare/confuse people with GitHub or F-Droid. It will just result in people installing F-Droid that they don’t need, or forgetting where they downloaded it from the next time there’s an update and it won’t install because of the different signatures. NewPipe has an automatically checked option that informs the user about new updates and that’s all one needs. What every site that writes about NewPipe SHOULD do is to point out OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, to NOT download NewPipe or anything with the word newpipe in it from Google Play Store. This should also be hammered into the users heads, if you show and brag about your fancy youtube app to your friends, make damn sure they understand where to get it from. Every week there’s surely a few million people that download it from Google Play Store and have a horrible experience and talk CRAP about NewPipe, because “my buddy said it’s good, but it’s the worst garbage I’ve ever used, stay away from this scam!”…. Blehh…..
One can also add the NewPipe repository to F-Droid and get the latest updates fast