As some of you may know, YouTube Vanced has been discontinued. The team behind the app announced the news via various social media channels recently. YouTube Vanced has been the favorite YouTube alternative app for many people, but due to legal reasons, it had to be discontinued. In this article, we did our best to find some YouTube Vanced alternatives for you, though truth be said, nothing can directly replace the app, at least not for free.
YouTube Vanced was likely pushed by Google to seize its operation. The app will remain active until it becomes obsolete, though you won’t be able to download it any longer, at least not officially. Below, you’ll see nine alternatives for YouTube Vanced, most of which will give you at least a piece of this app’s functionality. Only the official YouTube app with the Premium subscription can provide you with all the features you may need, though.
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Do note that the apps below are not listed in any specific order. Before we start, do note that most of the apps below are not available from the Google Play Store, so proceed with caution. Some are available via third-party stores, while some can be downloaded from their respective websites.
Top 9 Best YouTube Vanced App Alternatives For Android 2022
Below is a quick overview of the top 9 best YouTube Vanced app alternatives for Android for 2022, including any download and in-app purchase costs.
| Download Cost | In-app cost (per item) | |
| New Pipe | ✕ | ✕ |
| SkyTube | ✕ | ✕ |
| YouTube (Premium) | ✕ | ✕ |
| FireTube | ✕ | ✕ |
| YMusic | ✕ | ✕ |
| LibreTube | ✕ | ✕ |
| iTube | ✕ | ✕ |
| YouTube Go | ✕ | ✕ |
| Kiwi Browser | ✕ | ✕ |
Top 9 Best YouTube Vanced App Alternatives For Android 2022 Downloads
Below is a little more information on each app, and a direct link for easy downloading.
Some of the links will send you to Google Play Store listing, some will not. Some will link you to third-party stores and websites. Users are always recommended to download apps from Google Play or an authorized app store, of course, but considering today’s topic, we couldn’t avoid it.
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New Pipe
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: 9MB
NewPipe is one of the most popular alternatives to YouTube, and it has been for a long time now. Some people actually preferred NewPipe’s simplicity over YouTube Vanced’s long list of features. This app is not available in the Google Play Store, and that’s the case for every unofficial YouTube alternative. Only a couple of apps below are available via the Google Play Store.
If you’re using one of Huawei’s smartphones without Google Services, you’ll love this app. This app doesn’t rely on Google framework libraries, and can be used on HarmonyOS. It comes without ads, and it allows you to keep playback active even if your display is off. You can also force videos to play at your preferred quality, and the app does come with a picture-in-picture mode. This is probably the best unofficial alternative for YouTube Vanced.
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SkyTube
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: 7.6MB
SkyTube is also an app that can be downloaded via F-Droid, just like NewPipe. Much like NewPipe, this app is also open-source, and therefore it’s ad-free. This app can also function on apps without Google services, if that’s something you need. It does allow you to subscribe to YouTube channels, as you would on the official app. You can also create playlists, and have various other options inside the app.
Unlike most other YouTube apps, you can even block specific channels via this app, and also whitelist some, if you want. That way, you can really tune the recommendations to be the best they can possibly be. SkyTube is, next to NewPipe, amongst the best third-party YouTube alternatives. It’s very simple to use, comes with a rather simple design, and yet it’s highly functional.
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YouTube (Premium)
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
YouTube has become a hassle to use without a subscription, to a degree. Google has been adding more and more ads to the app as time passed by, and it’s a real struggle to watch some videos these days. Ads are popping up several times in some videos, and it’s simply not a great experience. On top of that, you’re missing out on some advanced features without the ‘Premium’ subscription.
If you do decide to pay a monthly fee, though, you’ll not only get rid of all the ads, and get a number of really useful features, but you’ll also get the audio factor. By the ‘audio factor’ I mean access to YouTube Music. If you don’t already have a streaming service that you’re paying for, YouTube Music is a great choice. If you happen to have family members that are interested, you can get everything mentioned above for a small monthly fee.
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FireTube
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: 21.93MB
FireTube is another interesting choice. This app is mostly focused on the audio aspect of YouTube, but it does allow you to watch videos as well. This is another app that is not available in the Google Play Store, though. You can, however, download it from its very own website, and sideload it on your phone, if you’d like to check it out. It comes without ads, of course, so that’s a plus.
The app does allow you to log in to your account, so you can actually listen to your very own playlists via this app. The app will continue the playback even if you turn off the display, which makes it an ideal app for music listening, and even listening to audio from some videos, if you want. As already mentioned, though, you can also watch videos via this app, and even choose their quality.
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Download FireTube (Firetube website)
YMusic
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: 8MB
YMusic, as its name says, is an app that is focused on the music aspect of YouTube. Do note that you cannot watch videos via this app, at all. The only thing you can do is get the audio part out. So if you’ve been using YouTube Vanced just to stream music, this is a great choice. The app can be downloaded from the official website, and it comes without ads, which is always good to hear for such apps.
Yes, you can listen to audio from any video without a problem, and with the screen off. This app even allows you to download YouTube videos in an mp3 format, so that you can listen to them afterwards. It can even extract metadata from a video, which is a really neat feature to have. The best of all is that it works with the official YouTube app, so you can basically just share the link to YMusic from your YouTube app, and stream something in the background without the Premium subscription.
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Download YMusic (YMusic website)
LibreTube
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: 10MB
LibreTube is another third-party YouTube app, though this one is in beta. It’s available via GitHub, but do expect some issues with the app. It doesn’t work perfectly, but it’s still more than good enough for everyday use. One of the main selling points for this app is that it uses ‘Piped’. There is essentially a server in-between you and Google. For some people that is an advantage.
This way, you can register an account, but via that server that sits in-between you and Google. You can also subscribe to channels that way, and so on, without accessing Google directly. This may be a great option for someone who is using Android, but not Google services. The app’s design is very simple, and that’s not a bad thing. You can choose the video quality in this app, and so on.
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iTube
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: 10MB
iTube is actually a third-party YouTube client that is available on both Android and iOS. This app does come with a really simple interface, and it has a bottom bar with all the necessary menus. What’s great about iTube is that it allows you to adjust the bass and treble for something you’re playing. So, it’s great to play music on, that’s for sure, as it gives you some extra options.
You can play videos via this app as well, and you can even play them in the background. This app doesn’t allow you to download videos, though, so keep that in mind. What it can do, however, is get you the lyrics for a song you’re playing. So, as you can see, this app is also highly-focused on the musical aspect. You can log in to iTube with your YouTube account, and create and use playlists.
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Download iTube (iTube website)
YouTube Go
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars
YouTube Go, as most of you know, is Google’s official application. This app is made for budget Android smartphones, those that ship with Android Go out of the box. You can’t exactly download it from the Play Store in every region out there, but you can always sideload it, if you’d like to try it out. The app will work more than fine with any Android smartphone, pretty much.
This app allows you to choose how many MB of bandwidth you’d like to spare when watching a video. So, for those of you on limited plans, this can be a great option. You can log in to this app with your existing account, of course, this is Google’s official application after all. Its UI is quite simple, and yet very functional at the same time. A link to the Play Store listing is below, as well as a link to APK Mirror, in case you’d like to sideload the app.
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Download YouTube Go (Play Store)
Download YouTube Go (APK Mirror)
Kiwi Browser
- Price: Free to download
- In-app purchases: No
- Size: Varies with device
- Google Play rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
Kiwi Browser is another solution that I wasn’t aware of, until recently. This browser can actually get you quite close to using a really good third-party YouTube client. Thanks to XDA Developers, I discovered some extensions that can boost the experience. You’ll need to install the browser itself, and then from it get SponsorBlock, Return YouTube Dislike, uBlock Origin, and YouTube Enhancer extensions.
All of this will enable you to watch YouTube videos without ads, and you’ll even get the dislike button. This is not a perfect replacement for YouTube Vanced, of course, but it’s good enough. You won’t be able to use a picture-in-picture player here, nor is it easy to share a video to Kiwi Browser, but it’s worth giving it a go, especially if you plan on browsing YouTube from Kiwi Browser.
