# NewTube: an open-source YouTube client built for Android phones > NewTube takes the SmartTube engine, which already speaks to YouTube, and puts a phone-shaped touch interface and its own player on top of it. You sign in with a short code instead of typing a password, playback continues with the screen off, videos save for offline, and SponsorBlock, DeArrow and Return YouTube Dislike come along with it. It is distributed from GitHub rather than the Play Store, and every APK is signed and attested so you can check what you install. **aleixrodriala/newtube** — SmartTube for phones, unofficial: an open-source YouTube client for Android. Background play, PiP, SponsorBlock, DeArrow, save for offline, code sign-in. - Repository: https://github.com/aleixrodriala/newtube - Website: https://newtube.org/ - Stars: 585 · Forks: 27 - Language: Java - License: MIT - Published: 2026-10-22 · Updated: 2026-10-22 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/aleixrodriala-newtube ## SmartTube's engine, with a phone interface on top NewTube describes itself as SmartTube for phones, unofficial: a YouTube client for Android phones and tablets, built on SmartTube by yuliskov, and the README states the split of work plainly. 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. What NewTube adds is a touch interface, its own player, and offline saving. It is an independent project, not endorsed by SmartTube's developer, and it takes no donations, pointing people who want to support the work at SmartTube's own donation page instead. That is a useful thing to know before reading the feature list, because it tells you which parts of the application are a phone adaptation and which are shared with a television client that has been running for years. The repository layout says the same thing: there is a smarttubetv/ directory alongside MediaServiceCore, SharedModules, common/, sabr-media3/ and doubletapplayerview-media3/, which is a codebase where a TV player and a phone player share a media core. The project is MIT licensed, written in Java, and the home page is newtube.org. The topic list is unusually informative about what it actually is: innertube and youtube-frontend and youtube-player, which are the internal names of the interfaces a third-party client has to speak, plus background-playback, picture-in-picture, sponsorblock, dearrow and return-youtube-dislike. The audience is an Android user who wants a phone client with the features the official app does not have, and who accepts that the underlying protocol is not a public API. ## Signing in with a code, and never typing a password The sign-in flow is the part of a third-party client that most affects trust, and NewTube's version is short. Open the You tab, tap the account row, then Sign in. NewTube shows a short code. Tap Continue with Google, and Google's own page opens, where you pick your account and allow access. It may mention a TV, because NewTube signs in the same way a television does. Come back, and the 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 and services. That last point is the one to hold on to. A client that cannot see your password because it never asks for it is a client that cannot leak your password, and the revocation path is the standard Google one rather than a custom account page, so you are not trusting the project's own account management. The other thing the README emphasises is what the app does not need. It doesn't need microG, GmsCore, root or a patched app. Signing in is optional as well: signed out, YouTube still personalises Home from what you watch. That last sentence matters, because signing in is what pulls in your subscriptions, history, playlists, Watch later and recommendations, and it is also what gives a client the full picture of your account. A user who never signs in gets a working player with a personalised home feed and none of the account data. Several accounts are supported, with a switcher, or none at all, which is an unusually honest way to describe the two states. ## Playback that survives the screen turning off The playback behaviour is the feature the app is built around, and it comes in two parts. Background playback with the screen off is the first. On top of that there is picture-in-picture and a mini-player you can drag down while you keep browsing, plus lock-screen and headset controls. Picture-in-picture requires Android 8 or later, and the app's own minimum is Android 7.0. The gesture scheme is described in the feature list: swipe up into fullscreen, down out of it, brightness and volume on the sides, and sideways to seek. That is the vocabulary of a player designed for one hand and for glances rather than for a session at a desk. Playback speed runs from 0.25x to 2x with finer steps between them, and playback waits out tunnels and dead zones and resumes where it stopped. The last one is a small feature with a large effect on whether a phone client is usable on a commute, since a video that buffers every time the train enters a tunnel is a video you stop watching. Quality goes up to 4K where the video and the phone allow, with 1080p as the default and a codec choice, and there are subtitles including auto-translated tracks, with caption style and size. Chapters, dubbed audio tracks, live chat and comments are all there, and both reading and writing comments are supported. Playlists get Play all, Shuffle, Save to playlist, New playlist, and a queue that says what it is playing from. The interface is plain Material Design, in light or dark, and the settings are organised into short pages with a search, which is the right structure for the number of switches a media client accumulates. ## Offline saving, and where the files land Offline saving is the third pillar of the app, and the README is specific about the choices involved. You 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. Keeping only the audio is the option worth knowing about, because it is the one that makes sense for a lot of videos and it is unusual to see it presented as a first class choice rather than as a side effect of the format picker. The 1080p cap for downloads is separate from the 4K cap for streaming, which is a reasonable split given that an offline copy lives on the device. The repository shows the machinery behind the picker. There is a filepicker-lib/ directory for choosing where files go, and the download results are surfaced through the system gallery, which is what makes them visible to other apps rather than trapped inside NewTube. The interface language list is English and Spanish, and the repository carries crowdin.yml plus a TRANSLATING.md file, so translation is handled through Crowdin rather than through hand-edited string resources. The wider point about offline content is worth stating carefully. The application is a client for a streaming service, and the offline feature stores copies of the video you can play without a connection. That is a normal consumer feature for a player and the README presents it as one, with the quality ceiling given plainly so that nobody is surprised by the file size. The app does not present itself as a download manager for the whole catalogue, and the feature list does not claim to be one. ## SponsorBlock, DeArrow and the absence of Shorts Three of the integrations come from SmartTube rather than from NewTube, and they are the ones that change what you watch rather than how you watch it. SponsorBlock skips sponsor segments, DeArrow swaps clickbait titles and thumbnails for more neutral ones, and Return YouTube Dislike shows estimated dislike counts. The first is the one most people know, and the second is the one that changes the app's character: a video that was titled to provoke gets a title that describes it, which changes what you click as much as what you see once you have clicked. The estimated dislike counts are worth a note. They are estimates rather than real counts, because YouTube stopped publishing the real figure, and the feature exists to restore the number that used to be visible. Then there is the absence: there are no Shorts. That is a deliberate removal rather than an unimplemented feature, and it is the clearest statement of what this client is for. Shorts is a vertical, feed-shaped, engagement-driven format, and a client that presents itself as a calmer way to watch video removes it rather than adding it. The feature list also notes the ability to cast to SmartTube on a TV using its Remote control code, and to play straight to a Chromecast from the phone, with no live streams or subtitles in that mode. The pairing with SmartTube on the television is the feature that connects this project to the codebase it is built on, and it means a user of both can start a video on the phone and continue it on the screen. Other things listed: swipe gestures, live chat, chapters, dubbed audio tracks, several accounts with a switcher, and playback speed with finer steps. ## Installing from GitHub, and checking the signature The download section is the most careful part of the README, and it is worth following literally. The APK table lists four builds: an arm64-v8a one for almost every phone from the last eight years, an armeabi-v7a one for older 32-bit phones, a universal one that is bigger for any ARM phone when you are unsure, and an x86 one for older x86 devices and emulators. Android 7.0 or newer is required, and NewTube has its own package name, io.github.aleixrodriala.arc, so it installs next to SmartTube or the YouTube app rather than replacing either. Updates are handled through Obtainium, where you choose Add app and paste the repository address, or by installing a newer APK over the old one. The app also checks for new versions itself and offers them in the app. ```text https://github.com/aleixrodriala/newtube ``` Every APK is signed with the same key, and the README gives the certificate SHA-256 so you can check what you have downloaded: ```bash apksigner verify --print-certs .apk ``` Each release also lists a SHA-256 for every file. And from version 1.10.3 the APKs are built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, which you can verify with: ```bash gh attestation verify .apk -R aleixrodriala/newtube ``` The last line of the download section is the one that ties the whole thing together: NewTube's key is not SmartTube's, so neither app can update the other. An unofficial client that could replace the official one would be a much bigger risk, and this one is deliberately built so that it cannot. The app is distributed on GitHub, not on Google Play, which also means you will not find it in the store and you will not get Play's update channel. ## Performance claims, the repository, and the limits of an unofficial client The README makes two performance claims and gives their provenance: the first screen appears in about 0.24 seconds, and a related video shows its first frame about half a second after you tap it, both as medians measured on a Pixel 9 on 25 and 26 September 2026. There is a macrobenchmark/ directory in the repository, which is consistent with those numbers coming from a repeatable measurement rather than from a stopwatch. The repository layout is broader than an application. Besides the app there is MediaServiceCore and SharedModules, common/, the media3 based directories sabr-media3/ and doubletapplayerview-media3/, smarttubetv/, slidableactivity/, filepicker-lib/, tools/, website/, fastlane/ for the release metadata, docs/, and the Gradle files. There is a PRIVACY.md and a THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md, a.reuse/ directory for licensing compliance, a CLAUDE.md for automated contributors, crowdin.yml and TRANSLATING.md for the translations, and CHANGELOG.md with a Spanish counterpart. The limitations are the kind that come with the territory. The client talks to YouTube through an interface that is not a documented public API, so the upstream side can change at any time, and a client like this will need a release to adapt. NewTube publishes no Google Play build, so updates depend on GitHub releases, Obtainium or the in-app check, and there is no store review in the path. And the project is MIT licensed but builds on SmartTube, whose terms are separate, which is why the repository carries a third party notices file. The alternative is the official YouTube app, and the difference in approach is that the official client is the first-party one: it carries Shorts, and it cannot skip sponsor segments. NewTube buys background playback without root, offline saving at your chosen quality, ad-skipping and a de-clickbaited interface, at the price of being unofficial and occasionally out of step with the service. ## Conclusion NewTube suits an Android phone owner who wants background playback, offline copies of videos and the ad-skipping and de-clickbait integrations that the official client does not offer, and who is willing to install an APK from GitHub and check its signature. It does not suit somebody who needs the official client's guarantees or its Shorts, and it does not suit a device below Android 7.0. Check three things before you install: that you verify the certificate, since the README gives the SHA-256 of the signing key and the apksigner command to check it against, that you pick the APK that matches your CPU, with the universal build as the safe choice if you are unsure, and that you understand the engine underneath is SmartTube's and changes with YouTube's behaviour, so a future release may be the one that restores a feature. The last push to the repository was on 2026-10-22 and the current release is v1.16.2. ## FAQ ### What is NewTube and how is it different from SmartTube? NewTube is an open source YouTube client for Android phones and tablets built on SmartTube. The engine, the account sign-in and the SponsorBlock, DeArrow and Return YouTube Dislike integrations come from SmartTube, while NewTube adds a touch interface, its own player and offline saving, and it is an independent project not endorsed by SmartTube's developer. ### Does NewTube need root or a patched YouTube app to sign in? No. The README says it does not need microG, GmsCore, root or a patched app. You tap Sign in, NewTube shows a short code, Google's own page opens to authorise access, and the sign-in finishes when you return, so your password is never typed into NewTube. ### How do I verify the NewTube APK I downloaded? Every APK is signed with the same key and the README gives its certificate SHA-256, so you can check it with apksigner verify --print-certs on the file. Each release also lists a SHA-256 for every file, and from version 1.10.3 the APKs are built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, verifiable with gh attestation verify. ### How do I install NewTube on my phone? Download the APK for your CPU from the GitHub releases: the arm64-v8a build for most recent phones, armeabi-v7a for older 32-bit phones, the universal build if you are unsure, or x86 for emulators. Android 7.0 or newer is required, and you can also add the repository to Obtainium for automatic updates. ### Can I save videos to watch offline with NewTube? Yes. You pick a quality up to 1080p or keep only the audio, the saved videos play in the same player with no connection, and they show up in your gallery. ## Sources - [aleixrodriala/newtube on GitHub](https://github.com/aleixrodriala/newtube) - [License: MIT](https://github.com/aleixrodriala/newtube/blob/main/LICENSE) - [Project website](https://newtube.org/) - [README](https://github.com/aleixrodriala/newtube/blob/main/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/aleixrodriala/newtube/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/aleixrodriala-newtube