I want these things to implement peer to peer caching, so that when 10 people are watching the same video, only one downloads from youtubes own servers.
Then it's just a matter of letting people add their own videos directly to the service and it can become fully independent of YouTube.
Delivering the bits is not the hard part of making a successful video platform. It's other stuff like recommendations and content discovery that is actually useful, allowing creators to monetize enough that they want to be on your platform, navigating legal issues, fighting spam and abuse, and getting enough users to sign up and start using your service.
Delivering the bits is a part of it though. When youtube changes its api in a way that forces NewPipe to change its algorithm, they have to push out a change that forces users to update the app. This is annoying because naturally you won't find NewPipe on the app store so updating the app is tedious for users who use it. The parent's workaround fixes some or all of this nuisance, depending on how implemented
Can't you just do "ota" updates like codepush used to do? ie shove a JavaScript asset with whatever is needed and allow the app to pull it at runtime?
Smarttube on Android TV just pulls its own APK so you just need to click Install after it downloads and opens it.
NewPipe dev here: We discussed something like this, but decided against “hot loadable code” like JavaScript snippets. Instead, we notify the users when a new version of the app is available. However, this features is opt-in due to privacy concerns. Maybe we should make it more obvious that this feature exists.
londons_explore · · focus · HN ↗
Then it's just a matter of letting people add their own videos directly to the service and it can become fully independent of YouTube.
adrianmonk · · focus · HN ↗
idrios · · focus · HN ↗
nijave · · focus · HN ↗
Smarttube on Android TV just pulls its own APK so you just need to click Install after it downloads and opens it.
the-scrabi · · focus · HN ↗