Hello there, I'm the author of Piped and would love to answer any questions you may have! 👋
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Looks great, I'm going to give it a try.
On your github, which I hope you have backed up.somewhere else because Google might come you, it says "no connections to Google's servers.". How are you getting the videos then?
Thank you for contributing to FOSS, and joining us on the Fedi. You're helping free the internet!
any plans to integrate DeArrow? 👀
love piped, i dont even change URLs to youtube.com when i send them to friends anymore because everyone loves the sponsorblock and adblock integration. thank you <3
I use it for about a year new. There are a few hiccups now and then, but you can just switch instance. That's why I recommend using Libredirect with it. If you have trouble with an instance just ping the instances in Libredirect and chose a new one. Backup your preferences from the old instance and import it to the new. Your settings and subscriptions are available again.
Inb4 YouTube starts charging for API access… too soon? :(
Piped (and similar projects like NewPipe, Invidious, and FreeTube) scrape YouTube instead of using an API; so just like Nitter, they won't be affected by a paid API.
Ironically Nitter stopped working lately, since Twitter started requiring users to be logged in to read anything.
That is a stupid decision, makes Reddit's the second worst to happen today! Musk just keeps driving Twitter into the ground just like spez is doing to Reddit.
Damn, I didn't even notice that, because twitter sucks
Invidious does use a YouTube API. FreeTube uses Invidious, so probably same story there. I don't know about the others.
I recently had a back and forth with one of invidious's developers. Judge for yourself.
I'm sure they're watching the reddit situation very closely.
Is this a similar concept to NewPipe?
Yep, Piped uses the NewPipeExtractor to load videos, just like NewPipe. However, Piped runs it server side, and NewPipe runs it client side. YouTube likes to rate limit the big instances too, so all you have to do is use a smaller one like il.ax or piped.adminforge.de.
Doesn't this make NewPipe better in that instance? If it's client side you aren't going to be rate limited.
There is also a fork of NewPipe that integrates SponsorBlock (I don't know if Piped has that).
Piped has SponsorBlock. However, NewPipe is still just better, even if only for Android. I use it more often than Piped.
Should really get aroundto sonating, though.
What's the advantage of running this server side?
That youtube don't know YOU scrape their website. in fact, they don't even know you're watching a video.
However, YouTube rate limits big Piped instances, so it's better to use NewPipe or a small instance.
SmartTube for Google/Android TVs! So amazing. AdBlock and sponsorblock built in.
How's the UI? I remember using it over a year ago and it felt really crusty compared to the Chromecast YouTube app
Been using smart tube for a while now. The interface and stability is getting better with every release.
Excellent timing! With the rumblings of YT attacking anti-ad users and me using my new iPad Pro for watching stuff on the go, I’ve just started looking into side-loading.
Looks like I’ll be going with an app that utilizes this fw. Good share!
How does it compare to invidious? Worth switching?
The two are quite similar services, there are only minor differences. Invidious uses its own API to scrape, while Piped uses the NewPipe extractor serverside. Piped also requires JavaScript to run, while Invidious does not. Overall, it's just up to your choice. Generally I prefer Invidious, then open a vidro in Piped if it won't load in Invidious just to see if it will.
Initial player response is not valid. Doesn’t inspire confidence that it is immediately broken.
eh, i don't think it's fair to discount a youtube frontend for having a bug, especially not a frontend as new as this one. projects at this early a stage always have issues, & youtube frontends have to deal with the added bonus of google randomly rate-limiting & consistently trying to break them. youtube frontends are always going to have issues & need constant updates by nature, there's not much any of them can do about it
The main instances are also rate limited too which does not help. A smaller instance like il.ax should do the trick.
It wasnt always like this. Google is always, moreso lately, constantly changing around the API to break things like Piped from working.
Having a lot of troubles with viewing content in any of the instances. Unfortunate since things are looking a lil’ bleak on YouTube as a whole.
There's a great browser addon called Libredirect which redirects Youtube videos to Piped or Invidious. You can quickly jump to another instance if one isn't working. It also supports reddit > teddit or libreddit along with many other frontends.
I like the ability to get an RSS/Atom feed for my subscriptions, which I just imported from NewPipe. I don't think it'll replace NewPipe for me, but it might come in handy if NewPipe fails to load a video for some reason. Even though the backend is also NewPipe, so it remains to be seen if it makes a difference.
Also great if you only have a browser available on a device and can't / don't want to sideload NewPipe.
How is it different from NewPipe?
It uses NewPipe in the backend. Your requests will be proxied through the Piped server.
To add on: There are a few things about this difference. Unlike in NewPipe, your IP never reaches Google, easier to make frontends or apps (Most private YouTube apps are an an Invidious/Piped frontend, excluding NewPipe and a few others), only the server's. However, YouTube rate limits large instances, so it's best to use a smaller one.
NewPipe generally provides a smoother experience, but it's largely limited to Android while Piped can be used anywhere.
That's awesome!! I'll definitely try it out later.
Completely new to this. I click a video and it says, initial player response not valid. What do I do from there?
is there any way for me to sign into my youtube account by way of piped so I can get my sub feed and stuff?
You can export your Youtube subscription into a csv file that can be imported into Piped. If you enable cookies you don't even need to create an account and can still have a personal feed. That's the main reason for me to use it above Invidious
Do any of these frontends have a "watch later" function? What I really need is the "remove watched" button, since its just a playlist.
I just create a playlist "watch later" add my videos to it and use it like the watch later feature in YouTube. It does a pretty good job
Just downloaded it, thank you!
How do I go about exporting my subs list from YouTube anyway?
Edit: Figured out my problem. I was using my primary google account and not the "Brand Account" aka my linked original youtube account that actually has all of my YouTube stuff on it.
Not working on firefox
org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.exceptions.ExtractionException: Initial player response is not valid
at org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.services.youtube.extractors.YoutubeStreamExtractor.onFetchPage(YoutubeStreamExtractor.java:904)
at org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.Extractor.fetchPage(Extractor.java:60)
at org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.stream.StreamInfo.getInfo(StreamInfo.java:78)
at org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.stream.StreamInfo.getInfo(StreamInfo.java:73)
at org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.stream.StreamInfo.getInfo(StreamInfo.java:68)
at me.kavin.piped.server.handlers.StreamHandlers.lambda$streamsResponse$0(StreamHandlers.java:55)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:833)
My problem with this kind of projects is the comment feature. They usually doesn't let you comment in videos and that's so cool