• NewPipe icon
  • SkyTube icon
  • SongTube icon
  • MusicPiped icon
  • VueTube icon
  • +3

Best YouTube Vanced alternatives for Android, after its shutdown

PaulPaul8 appsUpdated
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Bad news… The developers of https://alternativeto.net/software/youtube-vanced/ have announced the end of development of the application and download links. A decision caused by the actions of Google.

It's hard to be surprised by this change of situation for YouTube Vanced. The Verge tells us that the application will be removed in the next few days. Available on the official website of the application until now, the download links will disappear in the next few days and the development will stop.

But there's good news: there are plenty of other YouTube clients for Android with more or less the same features. And here are some of the best.

  1. NewPipe icon
     Like

    Lightweight and open-source app for YouTube, PeerTube, SoundCloud, and more. No Google Account needed, supports 4K and background audio streaming with downloads.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Android
    • Android Tablet
    • SoundCloud
    • Android Auto
    • YouTube Music
    • Flathub
    • Bandcamp
    • YouTube
    • F-Droid
    • OpenAPK
    • Flatpak
    • PeerTube
    NewPipe screenshot 1
    NewPipe screenshot 1
    NewPipe screenshot 2
    +7
    NewPipe screenshot 3
    PaulPaul’s note

    NewPipe is a YouTube client that does not use any Google-dependent library or YouTube API. The application only analyzes YouTube itself to get the necessary information. This mainly means that you can use this application on any device, even those that don't have Google services installed. The downside is that you can't log in with your Google/YouTube account, so you'd have to export/import your subscriptions.

    NewPipe is very lightweight, has a built-in ad-blocker, and supports downloading videos and playing them in the background. And if you miss SponsorBlock icon SponsorBlock, there's even a NewPipe fork that has this built-in.

  2. SkyTube icon
     Like

    Open source Android app offering ad-free YouTube playback, offline downloads, channel subscriptions without sign-in, advanced blockers, and swipe controls.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Android
    • Android Tablet
    • YouTube
    • F-Droid
    • Android TV
    • OpenAPK
    SkyTube screenshot 1
    SkyTube screenshot 2
    SkyTube screenshot 3
    PaulPaul’s note

    SkyTube is another open source YouTube player for Android. Many features like ad-blocking, subscriptions import, video downloading, and more can also be found in this app. Some highlighted features are the ability to block unwanted videos, blacklist/whitelist entire channels, filter languages, or block videos with few views and many dislikes. Like NewPipe, it doesn't allow you to log in with your YouTube account since the app is not dependent on GAPPS/Google Apps.

  3. SongTube icon
     Like

    SongTube is a new beautiful and fast application made in flutter, it supports YouTube audio and video downloading at any quality, In-App YouTube Browser, audio conversion, Playlists and an Audio tags editor.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Android
    SongTube screenshot 1
    PaulPaul’s note

    SongTube is a fast and functional YouTube client with a nice and polished design. It's privacy-friendly (no Google services or trackers), it blocks ads by default, and it's focused on listening to music with playlists at its heart. It also incorporates an audio converter & tags from MusicBrainz icon MusicBrainz.

  4. MusicPiped is a full-featured music player that streams from YouTube instead of playing local files.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Android
    • F-Droid
    MusicPiped screenshot 1
    MusicPiped screenshot 2
    MusicPiped screenshot 3
    PaulPaul’s note

    MusicPiped is a full-featured music player that streams from YouTube instead of playing local files. At its core, this app uses NewPipeExtractor to get streams from YouTube. It features built in search over YouTube, an adjustable playing queue, custom playlists, background playback with notification controls, and more. It does not stream video and only fetches audio files, thus eliminating heavy data usage of videos. MusicPiped does not track you. In fact, there is no tracking system at all; you don't even need Google APIs to use the app.

  5. VueTube icon
     Like

    Open-source client for ad-free video streaming on Android and iOS, offering customizable themes, privacy controls, SponsorBlock, frequent updates, and multi-language support.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Android
    • iPhone
    VueTube screenshot 1
    VueTube screenshot 2
    PaulPaul’s note

    VueTube is a new, simple, and open source YouTube client. Compared to the apps above, it can seem a little bare-bones, but if you don't need advanced features, this app might be a good fit for you. It features light, dark, and OLED themes, a basic search function, and a video player. VueTube is a newcomer, so new features like a custom video player, a customizable UI, an advanced video search, and even the ability to sign in with your Google account are expected to be added as the project matures.

  6. LibreTube icon
     Like

    Ad-free open-source YouTube frontend for Android enabling video and audio downloads, account sync, SponsorBlock support, playlists, gestures, comments, and dark mode.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Android
    • Android Tablet
    • F-Droid
    • OpenAPK
    LibreTube screenshot 1
    LibreTube screenshot 2
    LibreTube screenshot 3
    PaulPaul’s note

    LibreTube is an alternative frontend for YouTube on Android. It's also pretty recent, and is currently in beta (so you might expect bugs). But don't let this stop you, as it already has many interesting features like user accounts, subscriptions, playlists, search, suggestions, subtitles, and more. Other functionalities like filters and comments are currently being developed, so keep an eye on this project.

  7. YMusic icon
     Like

    Super convenient music app, enjoy music from YouTube with the smallest consumed data. play in the background, download, stream video and audio.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Android
    YMusic screenshot 1
    YMusic screenshot 2
    PaulPaul’s note

    YMusic is a convenient little app that lets you enjoy music from YouTube. It only plays the audio of the video in background to save up consumed data. With YMusic, you can download videos from YouTube (as MP3s), and it integrates with Last.fm icon Last.fm for retrieving artist images and descriptions. On top of that, it features a customizable interface, smart playlists with fully customizable rules, custom equalizers, gapless playback, home screen widgets, and more.

  8. Open-source browser with Gecko engine, supporting HTML add-ons and providing privacy features like Enhanced Tracking Protection and third-party cookie blocking.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • BSD
    • HUAWEI AppGallery
    • iPad
    • AppImageHub
    • Snapcraft
    • Linux Mobile
    • Flathub
    • Samsung Galaxy Store
    • PortableApps.com
    • Haiku
    • Flatpak
    • Homebrew
    • Chocolatey
    • Gecko
    • F-Droid
    More protection from the start
    Firefox Desktop (Light Theme)
    Firefox Desktop (Dark Theme)
    +8
    Firefox iOS (Light Theme)
    PaulPaul’s note

    Finally, if none of the apps mentioned above suit you, you can also just use a regular web browser that supports extensions, like Firefox (or Mull icon Mull or Fennec F-Droid  icon Fennec F-Droid ). You can add uBlock Origin icon uBlock Origin for blocking ads, SponsorBlock to skip the sponsored segments, and Video Background Play Fix icon Video Background Play Fix to play videos in the background, and just use the YouTube web player at youtube.com.


I personally really like NewPipe (the version with SponsorBlock), but some people might be looking for particular features, so I hope you'll find something that suits your needs in this list. 🙂 Let me know in the comments if you know other great alternatives, or if you've already tested one that's mentioned here.

Comments

ngocanhtve
0

I use the original NewPipe to watch music videos. Use NewPipe SponsoreBlock to watch Anime. Use PipePipe to watch videos of everything else.

Dantes V-NoWar Earthling
1
CM & Social Entrepreneur at Ethical Green Society

Hi Paul, since this year there's a new project born from the ashes of Vanced: YouTube ReVanced. It's an Android patch to apply on a regular YouTube Apk. It works like his predecessor, or even better. Here's the Discord community: https://discord.gg/revanced

2 replies
Dantes V-NoWar Earthling
CM & Social Entrepreneur at Ethical Green Society

I tired also Brave, the privacy Broswer. It works pretty well. It has an integrated Ad-Block function and ii's the fastest Broswer out there. Here you can also install extensions for YouTube like DeArrow that change the picture and the title of any clickbait or sensational video picture and text. I use it with my PC but it the Ad-Blocks works also on Android. :)

Dantes V-NoWar Earthling
CM & Social Entrepreneur at Ethical Green Society

I tried*

DidierD
-14

I prefer this : https://www.youtube.com/premium More ethical, more legal, and a small amount money

1 reply
Dantes V-NoWar Earthling
CM & Social Entrepreneur at Ethical Green Society
Replying to @DidierD

Google isn't about ethics. Rather than relying on advertisements or subscriptions, consider directly compensating your preferred creators.

Nyla Smokeyface
-1

You should add Invidious, which is a front-end, privacy friendly web client for YouTube. I've also heard good things about FreeTube (which is an actual app) but I've never used it

2 replies
Replying to @Nyla Smokeyface

This post only lists the alternatives to Vanced that are available on Android. Invidious is a website, and FreeTube is a desktop app.

Nyla Smokeyface

Ohhh gotcha.

Darlene Sonalder
2
App tester and reviewer at Great App Testing Ltd.

I'm a big fan of NewPipe (x SponsorBlock) but have interest in LibreTube since it uses Piped instead of YouTube directly. Still early for my daily usage for now