teamnewpipe/newpipe
A libre lightweight streaming front-end for Android.
How newpipe is put together
NewPipe is a libre, lightweight streaming front-end for Android that presents content from YouTube, PeerTube, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and media.ccc.de without user accounts. The app is built on the Android SDK (Java/Kotlin, Fragment-based UI) and delegates all service data extraction to the separate NewPipeExtractor library; HTTP traffic is funneled through a singleton OkHttp-based DownloaderImpl that injects spoofed User-Agent and cookie headers. Local state lives in a Room SQLite database (schemas up to version 9), SharedPreferences, and in-memory caches (InfoCache, SerializedCache), while background work (feed notifications, update checks) runs via WorkManager workers. The dev branch additionally shows a multiplatform layout (shared/, desktopApp/, iosApp/ Swift sources) layered on top of the main app module.
Languages
Frameworks
Datastores
Infrastructure
Major components
UI layer (activities/fragments)
Fragment-based navigation with MainActivity as the entry point hosting drawer navigation, MainFragment backstack, VideoDetailFragment, SearchFragment, and player bottom sheet integration.
DownloaderImpl (network layer)
Singleton OkHttp client implementing the extractor's Downloader interface: applies compression interceptors (Brotli/Gzip), spoofed Firefox User-Agent, YouTube restricted-mode and reCAPTCHA cookies, and detects HTTP 429 to raise ReCaptchaException.
Extraction/service layer
Uses NewPipeExtractor's StreamingService/NewPipe APIs to fetch streams, channels, playlists, comments, and feeds from supported services.
Local persistence
Room AppDatabase (migrated schema JSONs v2-v9) stores streams, playlists, subscriptions, and watch history; SharedPreferences hold settings like restricted-mode and update consent.
Player
Player/PlayerHolder/PlayQueue manage background and popup playback, exposed through player.event and playqueue packages.
Background workers
NotificationWorker schedules new-stream notifications and NewVersionWorker performs release-update checks gated by user consent keys.
Settings & migration
UpdateSettingsFragment (update consent flow), MigrationManager, and Localization migrate legacy preference/language settings.
Safety/emergency & utilities
PanicResponderActivity/ExitActivity implement the Guardian Project panic wipe trigger; util package provides NavigationHelper, PermissionHelper, ThemeHelper, ShareUtils, ReleaseVersionUtil.
A maintenance-focused week adding brotli compression to downloads, updating dependencies, and fixing link timestamps.
5 weeksWeek of 2026-08-17
Week of 2026-08-17latest
A maintenance-focused week adding brotli compression to downloads, updating dependencies, and fixing link timestamps.
Week of 2026-08-10
NewPipe 0.29.1 was released this week, fixing a fullscreen video delay and dropping the Hooktube service.
Week of 2026-08-03
A quiet week with only translation updates for Traditional Chinese.
Week of 2026-07-27
User-facing fixes landed this week: playlists clear properly on back-navigation and the search menu looks better.
Week of 2026-07-20
YouTube podcasts and courses tabs gained support, plus keyboard-handling improvements and contributor guidance.
Over the past five weeks, the NewPipe team shipped a new release (version 0.29.1) that fixed a black-video delay in fullscreen and removed support for the Hooktube service, while keeping translations flowing in many languages. Work then shifted to quality-of-life fixes like playlist clearing, search menu polish, and timestamped links, alongside infrastructure upkeep such as dependency updates, brotli download support, and YouTube podcasts/courses tabs.
Week by week
2026-08-17A maintenance-focused week adding brotli compression to downloads, updating dependencies, and fixing link timestamps.latest6 changes
Feature
Brotli support in downloader
Downloads can now use brotli compression, which can make fetching content faster and lighter.
Fix
Timestamped links open correctly
Links that include a start time (like a video at a specific moment) now open where they should.
Chore
Gradle and dependencies updated
The app's underlying build tools and libraries were refreshed to their latest stable versions.
Chore
Checkstyle reverted to 13.8.0
The code-style checking tool was rolled back to an earlier version after a problematic update.
Docs
README typo fixed
Corrected a spelling mistake ('INFINGING' to 'INFRINGING') in the project's README.
Chore
Translations for Japanese and Estonian
Community contributors translated more of the app into Japanese and Estonian.
2026-08-10NewPipe 0.29.1 was released this week, fixing a fullscreen video delay and dropping the Hooktube service.6 changes
Chore
Version bump to 0.29.1
The app version was raised to 0.29.1 with a changelog documenting what's new.
Fix
Black video delay in fullscreen
Entering fullscreen no longer shows a black screen delay before the video appears.
Refactor
Hooktube support removed
The app no longer offers Hooktube as a service since it is no longer viable.
Chore
Piped and Invidious instances updated
The list of alternative front-end servers used by the app was refreshed.
Fix
Media tunneling blacklist expanded
Certain TV devices (JMGO N1S 4K and TCL 65Q651G) were excluded from hardware acceleration that caused playback problems.
Chore
Extractor updated to v0.24.5
The core library that talks to video sites was updated, including adjustments for its new record-class descriptions.
2026-08-03A quiet week with only translation updates for Traditional Chinese.2 changes
Docs
Traditional Chinese translations
Community translators updated the app's Traditional Chinese language strings.
Docs
More Traditional Chinese strings
An additional batch of Traditional Chinese translation updates landed.
2026-07-27User-facing fixes landed this week: playlists clear properly on back-navigation and the search menu looks better.3 changes
Fix
Playlist clearing fixed
Going back from a playlist view now clears it correctly instead of leaving stale content behind.
Refactor
Automatic audio focus cleanup
How the app handles audio focus when other sounds play was simplified, removing unnecessary manual handling.
Fix
Search menu titles polished
The section headers inside the search menu got a visual makeover.
2026-07-20YouTube podcasts and courses tabs gained support, plus keyboard-handling improvements and contributor guidance.5 changes
Feature
YouTube podcasts and courses tabs
The app can now show YouTube's 'podcasts' and 'courses' tabs so users can browse that content.
Chore
PR template improved
Contributors are now asked to explain how they tested their changes before submitting.
Refactor
Keyboard utility replaced with library
Custom keyboard-handling code was swapped out for an existing helper library, reducing code to maintain.
Fix
Cursor issue fixed
A problem with text cursor behavior in input fields was corrected.
Docs
Toki Pona and Portuguese translations
Translations were added or refreshed in Toki Pona and European Portuguese.
Dependencies and code review
Dependency advisories
Security Watch
No known advisories across 0 scanned dependencies.
No known advisories in the scanned dependencies.
Code review
39 files reviewed; 0 of 2 claimed findings confirmed after verification.
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