FreeTube

After a small break, I'm back to release version 0.5.0 of FreeTube. In case you haven't heard, FreeTube is now a year old! Check out the blog post about it to learn more. With that out of the way, here are the highlights of today's update.

Revamped Tor / Proxy Functionality

I heard you loud and clear, the previous Tor functionality needed some work. Setting it up was strange and not ideal for everyone. Thanks to a contribution by @ivan1548, we have a much improved implementation.

The settings page now allows you to set the URL of your preferred proxy settings. This includes a localhost SOCKS5 proxy to Tor. You can also test out your proxy settings by making a request to https://ifconfig.co to make sure it is configured properly. I believe that everything, including videos should go through this proxy setting, however more testing needs to be done. Anyone who can test this please let me know of your results. I will advertise it as API calls only for now.

Configure Self-hosted Invidious Instance

It's becoming more popular for users to self-host their own instance of Invidious. You can now point FreeTube to a different Invidious instance if you'd like. FreeTube will still default to the main https://invidio.us website.

Go Back to Search

Another contribution by @ivan1548. A back button will now show up if you go to a video, channel, or playlist after a search. This back button will take you back to the search results screen so you don't have to make a new search. Speaking of searching...

Advanced Search Filtering

A new filter button has appeared in the top bar that allows you to filter your search results for a more precise search.

Better Usability in Various Places

There were some aspects of the UI that seemed slow or odd during navigation, namely when viewing your subscriptions and your History / Favorites. These have been worked with a bit to be a bit faster and more fluid. The local database will save more information during certain functions to prevent the UI from slowing down due to several API calls. Your History / Favorites database should update when viewing those pages for the first time. Afterwards they can be viewed much faster. Subscriptions should also load slightly faster as well due to not loading as much data from the API. All of this should result in an overall better user experience.

Other Small Fixes

We have other small fixes such as the following:

• Channels that have Premium content (eg. YouTube Red content) is now filtered out when loading subscriptions.
• Grabbing the video URL is now done locally instead of through Invidious to prevent frequent “This video is unavailable in your country” messages. Switching VPNs is more reliable to avoid region blocking.

Feedback

FreeTube has never looked this good and there's still a lot to go through. As always, your feedback is very appreciated. You can download FreeTube on GitHub or over at the new FreeTube website. Come give your feedback over at the Matrix server or you can make an issue over on GitHub. I'll see you at the next release!

NOTE: Packages are not signed and your virus protection may take notice. Please check out the F.A.Q. for more info.