newtube README

The project's README from github.com/aleixrodriala/newtube. As one markdown file: README.md.

NewTube icon

NewTube

Built on SmartTube. Made for your phone.

SmartTube for phones, unofficial: a YouTube client for Android phones and tablets, built on SmartTube by @yuliskov.
Sign in with a code, keep it playing in the background, save videos for offline, and cast to SmartTube on your TV.

Latest release Android 7.0+ License: MIT Built on SmartTube Discord

Website · Download · Features · How sign-in works · FAQ · Translate · Credits


Three NewTube screens: the sign-in code, the watch page playing Sintel, and the Downloads tab

[!NOTE] NewTube is SmartTube's work underneath. The engine that talks to YouTube, the account sign-in and the SponsorBlock, DeArrow and Return YouTube Dislike integrations all come from SmartTube. NewTube adds a touch interface, its own player and offline saving. It is an independent project, not endorsed by SmartTube's developer. NewTube takes no donations: if you find it useful, support SmartTube.

Features

Your account, in seconds

Sign in once with a code and your subscriptions, history, playlists, Watch later and recommendations load from your account. It doesn't need microG, GmsCore, root or a patched app. Signing in is optional; signed out, YouTube still personalises Home from what you watch.

Keeps playing

Background playback with the screen off, picture-in-picture, and a mini-player you can drag down while you keep browsing. Lock-screen and headset controls work too.

Save for offline

Pick a quality up to 1080p, or keep only the audio. Saved videos play in the same player with no connection, and they show up in your gallery.

Measured speed

The first screen appears in about 0.24 s, and a related video shows its first frame about half a second after you tap it (Pixel 9 medians). The interface is plain Material Design, in light or dark.

Less noise

SponsorBlock skips sponsor segments, DeArrow swaps clickbait titles and thumbnails, and Return YouTube Dislike shows estimated dislike counts. There are no Shorts.

Works with SmartTube on your TV

Pair with SmartTube on the TV using its Remote control code. You can also play straight to a Chromecast from the phone (no live streams or subtitles in that mode), or use the TV's own YouTube app.
Everything else
  • Up to 4K where the video and the phone allow (1080p by default), with codec choice
  • Subtitles, including auto-translated tracks, and caption style and size
  • Playback speed from 0.25x to 2x, plus finer steps
  • Playlists: Play all, Shuffle, Save to playlist, New playlist, a queue with "Playing from…"
  • Several accounts, with a switcher, or none at all
  • Picture-in-picture on Android 8 and later
  • Swipe gestures: up into fullscreen, down out of it, brightness and volume on the sides, sideways to seek
  • Settings in short pages, with a search
  • Read and write comments, live chat; chapters and dubbed audio tracks
  • Playback that waits out tunnels and dead zones and resumes where it stopped
  • English and Spanish

NewTube in motion: Blender Studio's channel, a video with chapters, the comments panel, a seek and the mini-player Comments panel under the video Mini-player over a channel page The watch page in the light theme

Download

Get it on GitHub

Your device File
Almost every phone from the last ~8 years NewTube_<version>_arm64-v8a.apk
Older 32-bit phones NewTube_<version>_armeabi-v7a.apk
Not sure (any ARM phone) NewTube_<version>_universal.apk (bigger)
Older x86 devices and emulators NewTube_<version>_x86.apk

How sign-in works

  1. Open the You tab, tap the account row, then Sign in. NewTube shows a short code.
  2. Tap Continue with Google. Google's own page opens: pick your account and allow access. It may mention a TV, because NewTube signs in the same way a TV does.
  3. Come back. Sign-in finishes by itself.

Your password is only ever typed into Google's page, never into NewTube. The login token is stored on your phone and never sent to the developer. You can revoke it at any time at myaccount.google.com/security, under Your connections to third-party apps & services.

How fast

Medians measured on a Pixel 9 on 25 and 26 September 2026, with release builds of the code that became 1.10.1, 2 to 8 runs per cell: small samples, one phone, one carrier, and the mobile-data runs were on different days. Later versions haven't been re-timed this way, and 1.12.0 changed how the app opens (Home shows loading placeholders first). The method and the full table are in STATUS.md.

Wi-Fi Mobile data
Open the app → first screen 0.24 s 0.24 s
Open the app → Home fully painted 1.35 s 1.56 s
Tap a related video → first frame 0.50 s 0.53 s
Tap a related video → picture visible 0.66 s 0.73 s
Reopen a half-watched video → picture 0.37 s –
Tap a shared link → first frame 0.66 s 0.84 s

NewTube and SmartTube

SmartTube NewTube
Made for Android TV and TV boxes Phones and tablets
Controls TV remote (D-pad) Touch and gestures
Interface Leanback Material Design
Engine MediaServiceCore + SharedModules Forks of the same modules
Player ExoPlayer androidx Media3
Offline saving No Yes
License MIT MIT

Have an Android TV? Get SmartTube. It's excellent, and NewTube can cast to it.

FAQ

Can SmartTube be installed on phones?

SmartTube is made for Android TV and TV boxes, and its README says "There will not be a phone version." NewTube is an unofficial phone client built on SmartTube's engine, with a touch interface, its own player and offline saving. It is an independent project, not endorsed by SmartTube's developer.

Do I need microG, GmsCore, root or ReVanced?

No. NewTube isn't a patched YouTube app. It signs in with a code the way a TV does, so it doesn't need Google Play Services or a stand-in for them.

How is it different from NewPipe, LibreTube or ReVanced?

They're all good apps, and which one fits depends on what you want. NewPipe and LibreTube don't sign in to a Google account; they keep subscriptions on your phone or on a Piped server. ReVanced patches the official app and needs GmsCore unless you're rooted. NewTube is built on SmartTube, so it uses your real account without any of that.

Is there another SmartTube-based phone app?

Yes. SmarterTube is another independent phone fork of SmartTube, worth comparing. The two are separate projects. One difference today (September 2026): NewTube can save videos for offline.

Is it safe? How do I know the APK is really NewTube?

Up to 1.10.2 the APKs were built on the maintainer's computer. From 1.10.3 they're built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, and each file has a build attestation you can check with gh attestation verify <file>.apk -R aleixrodriala/newtube. The builds aren't reproducible yet. Check the signing certificate against the fingerprint under Download, and each file against the SHA-256 in its release notes. Every release is tagged, so you can read the exact source. The app has no analytics, no crash reporting and no ad SDKs, and the developer receives nothing. It talks to YouTube (which sees what you watch, as it would anywhere), to the community services you can switch off (SponsorBlock, DeArrow, Return YouTube Dislike), and to GitHub. Details are in PRIVACY.md. Every check, with links, is also on the website under Trust and verification.

Was this made with AI?

Yes, in large part. NewTube is one person's project, and most of its own code (the phone interface, the player and the network work) was written with AI coding assistants (Claude and Codex); the commit trailers say so. The maintainer directs and reviews that work and uses the app daily. Each release record lists what was checked on a real phone, what only in automated tests, and what is still open. The engine underneath is SmartTube's, written by @yuliskov and its contributors over several years.

Why no donations?

NewTube doesn't take donations. SmartTube did the heavy lifting, so if you want to give something back, support SmartTube.

A video won't play. What now?

YouTube sometimes refuses a video or an account. NewTube retries through other routes, but not every video comes back. If one keeps failing, open an issue with the video link and your NewTube version.

Built on SmartTube

Project By Used for
SmartTube @yuliskov and contributors The engine, accounts and integrations: everything under the hood
SponsorBlock · DeArrow Ajay Ramachandran and contributors Segment and title data (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Return YouTube Dislike RYD contributors Dislike counts
androidx Media3 Google (Apache-2.0) Playback

Full notices are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md. SmartTube's original README is kept at docs/UPSTREAM_README_SmartTube.md.

Translate

NewTube's phone screens are in English and Spanish so far. You can translate them in your browser on Weblate (WEBLATE-URL-PLACEHOLDER: the project page goes live once it is approved), with no coding and no GitHub account needed. The settings and messages inherited from SmartTube already exist in about 45 languages and just need their gaps filled. Weblate sends the translations here as pull requests, and each one ships in the next release. How it works and what to translate first: TRANSLATING.md.

Building and contributing

New releases, help and ideas are on the NewTube Discord. Issues and pull requests are welcome. Build instructions are in docs/BUILDING.md. The changelog covers every release, with a Spanish edition for the testers.

License

MIT, the same as SmartTube. © yuliskov (SmartTube) and NewTube contributors.

Star history

NewTube's GitHub stars over time

NewTube is an independent, unofficial project. It is not affiliated with, funded, authorized or endorsed by Google LLC, YouTube, or SmartTube's developer, and it hosts no content. Save only what the law and the platform's terms allow you to. YouTube, Android and Google are trademarks of Google LLC.

newtube (aleixrodriala/newtube)

video-streaming
Searching Database…

530 ·GitHub
Newtube
What is this?NewTube is an unofficial YouTube client for Android phones and tablets, built on top of SmartTube (the Android TV app) by @yuliskov. It adds a touch interface, its own player and offline saving to SmartTube's engine.
Is this a fork of SmartTube or a separate app built on its engine?It is an independent app that reuses SmartTube's engine, account sign-in and SponsorBlock/DeArrow/RYD integrations, but adds its own touch UI, player and offline downloads. It is not endorsed by SmartTube's developer.
Do I need microG, root, or a patched app like ReVanced to use it?No. NewTube signs in with a code the way an Android TV does, so it never needs Google Play Services, microG, root, or patching.
Does every video play, and is the APK safe to trust?YouTube sometimes blocks a video or account and not every one recovers; builds from version 1.10.3 are made by GitHub Actions with attestations, but they are not yet reproducible.
What Android version do I need?Android 7.0 or newer; it is made for phones and tablets, not Android TV (that is what SmartTube itself is for).
What data does NewTube collect?The app has no analytics, crash reporting, or ad SDKs and the developer receives nothing; your login token stays on your phone and talks only to YouTube and the community services (SponsorBlock, DeArrow, RYD) you can turn off.
How does sign-in work without typing my password into the app?You open the account tab, get a short code, then approve it on Google's own sign-in page in the way a TV does; your password never touches NewTube, and you can revoke the token anytime from your Google account settings.
How is this different from NewPipe, LibreTube, or ReVanced?NewPipe and LibreTube avoid signing into a Google account entirely, keeping subscriptions local or on a Piped server; ReVanced patches the official app and needs GmsCore unless rooted. NewTube instead uses your real Google account via SmartTube's sign-in, with no patching or root required.
Can I use it with SmartTube on my TV?Yes, you can pair NewTube with SmartTube's remote-control code to cast from your phone, or cast directly to a Chromecast (without live streams or subtitles in that mode).
Was NewTube written by AI?Most of the phone-specific code (interface, player, networking) was written with AI coding assistants like Claude and Codex, with the maintainer directing and reviewing the work; the underlying engine is SmartTube's, built by @yuliskov over several years.
What are similar projects?Levyra-deepsound, SimpMusic, PipePipe, Metrolist, LastWave-Native, Echo-Music, my-tv-webview, morphe-patches
Which topics is it in?sponsorblock, media-player, apk, android-development, video-player, video-streaming, material-design, youtube, android-app, mobile-app, streaming, offline
Creator
aleixrodriala
Size
85.8 MB
Stars
530
Updated
CommitOct 13Releasev1.15.3Oct 13
Age
3mo
Commits · 90 Days