Releases: FreeTubeApp/FreeTube
Release 0.6.1 Beta
Release 0.6.0 Beta
Release 0.5.3 Beta
Release 0.5.2 Beta
Release 0.5.1 Beta
Release 0.5.0 Beta
Release 0.4.1 Beta
Release 0.4.0 Beta
Hey everyone! I'm back with a new release for FreeTube along with some other news. There's a lot to cover so I'll get right to it!
Goodbye YouTube API!
Yep, that's right. From this point on, FreeTube does not use the official YouTube API for any reason. I have fully migrated to the Invidious API which scrapes the website. You guys have done a fantastic job at consistantly maxing out my API keys so I'm sure that this is a welcome change.
Changing to the Invidious API have also made the following changes:
- Post dates are now approximate instead of exact (1 day ago vs October 19th, 2018)
- The "Most Popular" section will now match what is on the Invidious home page.
This is a huge benefit for FreeTube and I really want to thank @omarroth for all of the hard work that he's done. Please consider supporting him as it is very much deserved.
Playlist Support
I know that this has been highly requested and I'm glad to finally be able to get playlist support in FreeTube. I've kinda been dreading on starting this but I pulled through and I'm pretty happy with the results.
Playlists will now show up in search results. You can view a playlist and videos will automatically go to the next video when they end. You can also shuffle a playlist or tell it to loop back to the beginning of the playlist.
Tons of Default Settings
The settings page has been updated to include some extra toggles for everyone. You can now disable history, autoplay, and checking for updates. You can also toggle if subtitles turn on automatically. Lastly, you can set the default video quality and video speed of videos.
New Keyboard Shortcuts
This release sees a few more keyboard shortcuts, which include:
o- Descrease video speedp- Increase video speedAlt + DFocus on the search bar
Other Changes
There are a lot of smaller changes as well, which include:
- You can now use a right click to copy and paste text
- YouTube links in the description can now be opened up in FreeTube (If a binary is installed). Right click to open in your browser.
- Shortened links in the description now properly link to the external website.
- A "Trending" section is now available. This will match the "Trending" section in YouTube.
- You can now stream audio only for videos. Find the option in the quality dropdown.
- You can now loop videos.
- Any changes to the volume will now persist to other videos for the current session.
- Videos will now have a "Watched" indicator if you do not have history disabled.
- Unavailable quality types will now not show up in the quality dropdown
- FreeTube will more consistantly switch quality automatically if one type isn't available.
FreeTube Blog
The last thing I'd like to announce is a new FreeTube blog! I'd like to make posts / announcements related to FreeTube more often than during a release so I believe that this will be a good way to that. Because of this, future release posts will be posted over there instead. I have more information about the blog in it's first post which is here. I'd love to know what you think about it!
Check out the blog here.
500 Stars
This happened earlier this week, but FreeTube has hit 500 stars on GitHub! That's huge to me, especially considering that FreeTube feels young and there's still a lot to do. I really appreciate everyone's support with this and I'll continue to keep working on it.
Feedback
Wow that's a lot. I didn't realize how much was here until I wrote this. As always, I will have a discussion board on GitHub at #177. I appreciate any and all feedback that you'd like to give. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
See you next release!
NOTE: Packages are not signed and your virus protection may take notice. Please check out the F.A.Q. for more info.
Release 0.3.2 Beta
I didn't have plans on doing another release this early, but it looks like Reddit / recent events has forced my hand. You guys sure know how to keep me busy. :)
Anyways, here is release 0.3.2 beta.
Changes
HookTube -> Invidious
One of the biggest events that happened since the last release is that HookTube is essentially no more. For those that are unaware, HookTube was given a Cease and Desist by YouTube over their use of YouTube's API. This has forced the creator to use YouTube's official player in order to keep the site up and running. Because of this change, HookTube is no longer a viable alternative to YouTube when it comes to privacy. For those that are concerned with FreeTube having the same fate, I will be making a post over at #100 about the future plans of FreeTube and I shall address this. The post should be there in the next day or so.
Interestingly enough, at around the same time as the C&D for HookTube, a new competitor has entered the scene, Invidious. Invidious is similar to what HookTube used to be, but doesn't use the YouTube API similar to NewPipe. It's also Open Source which is pretty great. The developer is pretty awesome and is very active in our Matrix server. Feel free to stop by and say hi to him if you'd like.
Because of these changes, all links to HookTube now direct to Invidious.
Vue.js
As my career as a developer advances, I tend to learn some new things. One of the recent things that I've been working on is learning Vue.js. Vue is a small but powerful front end that really helps with organization. It was intended to be included in 0.4.0 but some base stuff has been finished so there's no real reason to wait before releasing it.
So what did it do?
With this release, this implementation actually did a couple of things. Each "view" in FreeTube is now saved in memory and rendered when it is called on. That means that your subscription list is saved locally and can be viewed immediately without having to wait for your subscriptions to reload. This change is implementing to every "view" in the app and navigation should feel much smoother because of it.
One of the issues that users have had is that the loading icon sometimes lock out the interface and never goes away. I did this to prevent abuse from users spamming the subscription button and destroying my API keys. With Vue, I have been able to get rid of this lock and any problem with the loading icon should go away. Because of the subscription list being stored locally, subscriptions will only refresh after a minute wait. You will get a notification on when the subscription list is refreshing.
Having this implementation also opens up more opportunities for future features. I hope you look forward to them. :)
Patch Notes
- I have added several more API keys to this build to help with the load. This should prevent some of the recent issues with the keys lately.
- You should once again be able to use your own API key in the settings menu.
- Pasting a channel link into the search bar should take you directly to that channel profile.
- You can now copy the YouTube URL using the dot menu in the video list.
- You can once again open a new instance of FreeTube by clicking on File -> Open New Window. The New Window option in the dot menu has been removed because of this.
- "Saved" videos have been reworded to "Favorites".
- Extremely long vertical videos shouldn't take up the entire screen now.
- I accidentally deactivated my GitHub API key for showing a new release within the app. A new one has been added and I will try to be more careful with it now.
Known Issues
If you have multiple instances of FreeTube running and then close all of them, the application may not run again until you restart your computer. I will be trying to fix this as fast as I can.
Feedback
As always your feedback is appreciated. Please let me know how I'm doing at #100 or over at our Matrix server. I will be making a post over at #100 about some future plans which should be exciting.
Enjoy! :)
NOTE: Packages are not signed and your virus protection may take notice. Please check out the F.A.Q. for more info.
Release 0.3.1 Beta
They always say that X.0 releases never stay that way for long and FreeTube isn't any different. I have a patch release for everyone alongside a new way for us to communicate. :)
Changes
- Some 720p videos shouldn't refuse to play anymore.
- Channels with blank banners shouldn't have the default banner stretch far down on the page.
- Exporting subscriptions now gives a default name to the exported file.
- The dark theme has had the scroll bar tweaked to be more visible.
- Tor is now spelled correctly.
- The Help button on the sidebar has been moved to the About page.
- HookTube and YouTube should now open properly when opening them at a video list.
- The AppImage and portable Windows versions should now work again.
New Matrix Server
It has been requested by a few people that I open up some sort of chat room for us to communicate. I'm happy to announce that the Official FreeTube Matrix server is now live! You will need a client such as Riot (or you can use your browser) in order to participate. Please check out the server rules before joining.
You can go straight to the Matrix server here or you can find us at #freetube:matrix.org
I don't know what traffic is going to look like so things may change rapidly depending on what happens. I'm looking forward to getting to talk to everyone over there. :)
Feedback
As always feedback is appreciated. You can join the discussion at #100 or join us at the Matrix server.
NOTE: Packages are not signed and your virus protection may take notice. Please read here for more information.