From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

PSA:
Google whackamole temporarily killed most FOSS YouTube replacement apps
<https://newpipe.org/>
<https://newpipe.org/download/>
<https://newpipe.org/file/NewPipe_v0.28.3.apk>
<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues>
*Subscriptions also aren't updating.*
*YouTube changed something, all the youtube apps are broken now.*
<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/13512>
Reproduced on v0.28.6
<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/releases/tag/v0.28.6>
[YouTube] Extract lockupViewModels in richItemRenderers
of channel tabs NewPipeExtractor#1491
<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipeExtractor/pull/1491>

Seems like Tubular, FreeTube, GrayJay, LibreTube, PipePipe,
and others are likewise affected. <https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/issues/9163> <https://github.com/polymorphicshade/Tubular>
<https://grayjay.app/>
<https://github.com/libre-tube/LibreTube> <https://github.com/InfinityLoop1308/PipePipe>
etc.

Apparently even the Linux/Windows/Mac FOSS YouTube's are also affected. FreeTube (Desktop App)
<https://freetubeapp.io/>
Yattee (Desktop + Mobile)
<https://github.com/yattee/yattee>
Invidious (Web App)

<https://github.com/iv-org/invidious>
Piped (Web App)

<https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped>
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia wrote:

*Subscriptions also aren't updating.*
*YouTube changed something, all the youtube apps are broken now.*
<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/13512>
Reproduced on v0.28.6
<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/releases/tag/v0.28.6>

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewPipe/comments/1tj5fo6/newpipe_not_loading/

Apparently YouTube changed its date identifier strings and RSS/metadata
format, which broke the NewPipe Extractor. Because of this, channel pages
are stuck in an infinite loading loop, and the main subscription feed is failing to populate with new videos on the PC and on the mobile device.

Currently there is a workaround which only partially works.

Open NewPipe and go to Settings.
Navigate to Content -> Feed.

Look for the toggle labeled "Fetch from dedicated servers when available"
(or "Fast Mode") and turn it ON.

Close and fully restart.

The advantage of these PC and mobile YouTube replacement apps is they get
rid of both the Google-fed and channel-fed advertisements.

For example, for popular channels, if the channel author shills for, oh,
say, Nord VPN, that entire section is cut out of the feed for you.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On 22/05/2026 08:35, Maria Sophia wrote:

Google whackamole temporarily killed most FOSS YouTube replacement apps

Could you complain to YouTube about this? Someone needs to make them
aware that YouTube is broken.

I just tried YouTube and it loaded fine for me, but I don't have any unnecessary software on my system.

Friday, 22 May 2026 @ 21:30:00




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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

John Smith wrote:

On 22/05/2026 08:35, Maria Sophia wrote:

Google whackamole temporarily killed most FOSS YouTube replacement apps

Could you complain to YouTube about this? Someone needs to make them
aware that YouTube is broken.

I just tried YouTube and it loaded fine for me, but I don't have any unnecessary software on my system.

The official YouTube experience has increasingly been optimized for monetization rather than user utility, ad blocking and user privacy.

The problem with using YouTube is privacy, particularly on a mobile device,
but also YouTube has no functionality compared to the various open source replacements that are available on all platforms (other than on iOS).

The replacement apps allow you to download, rip, choose formats, etc.
But most importantly, you'll never see an inserted advertisement.

Note that some channels, if popular, even wipe out the internal ads.
And, of course, you can blank the screen and play without the screen.

In summary, the FOSS youtube replacement apps afford the intelligent user
a. Privacy rights
b. Ad blocking
c. Media extraction
d. Background play

It's a structural conflict over who controls the device and the who
controls the data pipeline, and what neat features the user can enjoy.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On Fri, 22 May 2026 01:35:23 -0600, Maria Sophia wrote:

Google whackamole temporarily killed most FOSS YouTube replacement
apps

At least it doesn’t seem to have affected downloaders. I haven’t
needed to upgrade my yt-dlp in a while.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Lawrence D�Oliveiro wrote:

On Fri, 22 May 2026 01:35:23 -0600, Maria Sophia wrote:

Google whackamole temporarily killed most FOSS YouTube replacement
apps

At least it doesn�t seem to have affected downloaders. I haven�t
needed to upgrade my yt-dlp in a while.

Thanks for that update, as I haven't tried the many downloaders, such as 08/31/2023 11:45 AM <DIR> clipgrab
06/22/2023 04:47 PM <DIR> youtube-dl
10/21/2023 01:20 PM <DIR> yt-dlp
08/31/2023 12:29 PM <DIR> 3dyd
10/06/2025 10:03 PM <DIR> git
12/18/2025 07:09 PM <DIR> jdownloader
12/18/2025 07:10 PM <DIR> 4kvd
12/18/2025 08:03 PM <DIR> fdm
etc

As you noted, not all YouTube replacement apps seem to have been affected.
For example, here's a comment in the bug report about Grayjay.
SqueezePickles
2 days ago
It's interesting that both FreeTube and Newpipe broke at the same time
but Grayjay is still working correctly with no update.
<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/13512>

Seems to be affecting FreeTube also...
<https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/issues/9163>

For those who aren't aware, if you've ever seen an advertisement while streaming any YouTube video, you're doing something wrong (IMHO). :)
--
On Usenet, good people help others out of their kindness & generosity.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia wrote:

*YouTube changed something, all the youtube apps are broken now.*
<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/issues/13512>
Reproduced on v0.28.6
<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/releases/tag/v0.28.6>

UPDATE

The NewPipe team is on the ball when Google plays whackamole with YouTube. NewPipe officially recovered from the wackamole about an hour ago.
<https://newpipe.net/#download>
Version 0.28.7 (1012)
.local.subscription.services.SubscriptionsImportService
.local.subscription.services.SubscriptionsExportService

<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/releases/tag/v0.28.7>
<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/releases/download/v0.28.7/NewPipe_v0.28.7.apk>
Name: NewPipe_v0.28.7.apk
Size: 10885562 bytes (10 MiB)
SHA256: EB56AA9AE68B4D4B04E40251D7FE7EA49F97E0C4BE5A8384E28D98EE36B9C5E2

TobiGr released this 1 hour ago
This is a small hotfix update to make YouTube usable again.
It is necessary, because there were changes by YouTube.
NewPipe is able to extract items in channel tabs again thanks to @AudricV's
and @Ecomont's efforts.

Further changes from NewPipe Extractor v0.26.2 that are included in this release:

[YouTube] Fixed duration and live stream display in related videos
[SoundCloud] Fixed comments crash by handling null page URLs
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

On Sat, 23 May 2026 09:22:48 -0600, Maria Sophia wrote:

For those who aren't aware, if you've ever seen an advertisement
while streaming any YouTube video, you're doing something wrong
(IMHO). :)

I can recall a past version of youtube-dl having an option to download
the ads. It was marked “experimental” ...
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

On Sat, 23 May 2026 09:22:48 -0600, Maria Sophia wrote:

For those who aren't aware, if you've ever seen an advertisement
while streaming any YouTube video, you're doing something wrong
(IMHO). :)

I can recall a past version of youtube-dl having an option to download
the ads. It was marked "experimental" ...

Thanks for that experimental ad-related youtube-dl information, as I don't think I've seen an ad in years on any platform, the PC included, where I
think it's interesting how the youtube ad blocking works given there are
two types of ads, which, for lack of the real names, I'll call them
1. Ads that Google inserts
2. Ads that the creator inserts

In addition, iOS youtube aps insert another type of ad, which I'll call
3. Ads inserted by the youtube replacement app itself (which sucks)

Since I strive to add value in every post, I looked up how the FOSS YouTube replacement apps & extractors avoid streaming the "platform ads", where it turns out, apparently, they simply don't ask for them.

Apparently the way the FOSS YouTube apps work on baked-in ads inserted by
the creators themselves is twofold, where NewPipe makes this task easy:
A. Taptap (moves a set number of seconds forward)
B. Sponsor Block ( <https://sponsor.ajay.app/> )

The taptap method is self explanatory, and it's what I use mostly, but
mainly because I never looked up (until now) how "Sponsor Block" works.
<https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock>

SponsorBlock is apparently a database where users submit timestamps for:
a. Sponsor segments
b. Intros
c. Outros
d. Self-promos
e. "Like & Subscribe!" reminders
f. Non-music sections in music videos

Apparently, NewPipe can automatically skip these if you enable Sponsor
Block, but the videos I watch are so niche that likely it wouldn't matter.
--
On Usenet, kind helpful people learn from others in every single article.
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