What is FreeTube?
FreeTube is an Open Source desktop application for Windows (10 and later), Mac (macOS 10.15 and later) and Linux. It allows you to browse YouTube more privately compared to browsing on the site directly. Any data about you is stored locally on your own machine and is not sent or published to the internet. You can subscribe to your favorite channels and navigate the application in a similar manner to you would on YouTube.
How Does it Work?
FreeTube does not use the official YouTube API. Instead, it parses the information it needs from the YouTube website in a similar manner to youtube-dl. FreeTube has two different API engines that it can use to obtain information from YouTube. FreeTube has a built-in extractor (Dubbed the Local API) or it can use the API from the Invidious Project.
Feature List
- Watch videos without ads
- Use YouTube without Google tracking you using cookies and JavaScript
- Two extractor APIs to choose from (Built in or Invidious)
- Subscribe to channels without an account
- Connect to an externally setup proxy such as Tor
- View and search your local subscriptions, history, and saved videos
- Organize your subscriptions into “Profiles” to create a more focused feed
- Export & import subscriptions
- Youtube Trending
- Youtube Chapters
- Most popular videos page based on the set Invidious instance
- SponsorBlock
- Open videos from your browser directly into FreeTube (with extension)
- Watch videos using an external player
- Full Theme support
- Make a screenshot of a video
- Multiple windows
- Mini Player (Picture-in-Picture)
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Option to show only family friendly content
- Show/hide functionality or elements within the app using the distraction free settings