NouTube

NouTube is an open-source wrapper around the actual mobile YouTube and YouTube Music websites. It loads Google’s pages in Android WebView, injects code to remove ads and alter the interface, and hooks playback so audio can continue in the background. This architecture is the main fact to understand: it is neither a replacement video service nor a NewPipe-style native extractor.

This page covers F-Droid’s 0.7.4 64-bit ARM build. We matched its 68.2 MB APK to F-Droid’s signed index and inspected the fixed release source and changelog. We did not sign into Google, download copyrighted media or test whether every current YouTube layout defeats the filters.

Website wrapper and local features

NouTube can hide Shorts, block page ads and sponsored segments, keep playing with the screen or app in the background and expose playback controls in a media notification. Version 0.7.4 speeds up watch-page loading, preserves background playback across rotation and deduplicates channel subscriptions that use different URL forms.

The app also keeps its own bookmarks, folders, watch history and channel feeds. Its RSS reader follows YouTube channels without requiring a Google subscription. Feed notifications are off by default. Local history is on by default, as are ad blocking, SponsorBlock and hiding Shorts; Return YouTube Dislike is off by default. These are settings rather than guarantees that every server-side change will remain blocked.

Downloads run through an embedded Python environment and yt-dlp, and let the user choose a format and destination. On the first launch and then when its last check is at least 14 days old, NouTube can fetch the current yt-dlp release from GitHub rather than waiting for a full app update. Download behaviour can therefore change independently of the APK version.

Cookie use for downloads is off by default. The app’s own warning says enabling it may sign the account out or put it at risk of being flagged, because the current YouTube cookies are passed to the downloader for age-gated, members-only or bot-check responses. Download only material you are entitled to save and follow the service’s terms and local law.

SponsorBlock is enabled by default. For a video, NouTube sends the complete YouTube video ID to sponsor.ajay.app to retrieve segment timings; this is a separate request from loading the page at Google. Its release-news screen also requests the project’s GitHub releases.atom feed.

Accounts, cookies and privacy boundary

The WebView accepts cookies. You can use the app without logging in and keep a separate local library, but opening YouTube pages still contacts Google and the video hosts. If you sign in on the loaded page, the WebView stores and sends that account’s cookies just as a browser would. Clearing NouTube’s website data removes its WebView cookies; merely clearing the app’s local history is a different action.

An optional NouTube account can sync selected app data through the developer’s Supabase project and the a.inks.page service. That account is separate from a Google login and moves data beyond the local-only boundary described above, so local use and account sync should not be treated as the same privacy mode.

The measured APK declares internet, network-state, audio recording and modification, display-over-other-apps, vibration, wake lock, media-playback foreground service, notifications, boot, Bluetooth and storage-related permissions. Some storage permissions remain for older Android versions. Our static scan found no known tracker SDKs, but that does not make its intentional requests to YouTube, SponsorBlock, GitHub or the optional sync service anonymous. F-Droid labels the app NonFreeNet because its core function depends on Google’s proprietary YouTube service.

This build is 64-bit ARM only. It will not install on a 32-bit-only device or an x86 emulator. The project also offers desktop, iOS and browser-extension editions; their versions and privacy behaviour are not evidence for this Android APK.

About this file

• This is F-Droid’s source build of 0.7.4 for 64-bit ARM, signed with F-Droid’s key.
• It needs Android 7.0 or later and a working YouTube connection; a Google account is optional.
• Its measured SHA-256 is 20567eaea39851c847505831d8b0e034a55fc00e46b4ae68f204178546a34bff, matching F-Droid’s signed index.
• NouTube is AGPL-3.0-only. Our static scan found no known tracker SDKs, while F-Droid flags its required proprietary YouTube network service.

Flagged by F-Droid:

• NonFreeNet: Relies on or promotes a proprietary network service.

CPU types in this build: arm64-v8a (64-bit ARM, almost every phone since 2017).

Versions currently kept in the F-Droid repository. We host and check only the newest one.