PipeTv

YouTube on your TV, like it used to feel. A fast, private, remote-first YouTube client for Android TV, Google TV and Fire TV. No ads · no account · no Google services · SponsorBlock built in

⬇ Download the APK · ▶ Watch the full tour · ★ Star the repo

Screenshots

Instant home feed	Remote keyboard, live suggestions	Fullscreen playback
Quality & speed in the player	Details while it plays	Comments with replies
Live mini preview	Hold OK for quick actions	Videos / channels / playlists
SponsorBlock & settings	10 languages, full RTL	Open source, repo QR

Captured on a 1080p Android TV emulator. More on the website.

Why

• Instant – one custom-drawn view tree; the last feed is cached so it shows before the network answers.
• Smooth everywhere – virtualised canvas grid, spring physics, thumbnails decoded at card size. Android 5.0+.
• Keep browsing while watching – menus overlay the page without resizing it; the main menu shows a live mini preview.
• Popular – topic filters: Trending, Music, Gaming, News, Sports, Movies, Learning, Comedy, Live.
• Recommendations – built from your watch history, mixed with trending and popular topics.
• Details – description, facts, comments, up-next, and a jump to the channel (or playlist) for any video.
• Smart search – custom on-screen keyboard (14 layouts incl. Arabic, Russian, Hindi…), live suggestions, recent searches, filters (videos / channels / playlists), endless results and voice search.
• History timeline – grouped by day with times, progress bars, resume points and one-key removal.
• Clear controls – sliders and steppers for quality, speed, volume, subtitles; same widgets in Settings and in the player.
• Audio & subtitles – pick the dub/language track or bitrate and any subtitle track, in the player options.
• Never interrupts – opening a video keeps the current one playing until the new one is ready, with a clear "Opening…" state and the thumbnail while it loads. Cards look different for videos (with time-ago), channels and playlists.
• Player menu – while a video plays, press ← in the main menu to open the larger player panel. An arrow and slim edge line mark its location. Its only button is Close; select the video to return to fullscreen.
• Quick actions – hold OK on any card: play, info, favorite, open the uploader's channel. Comments with replies open with OK; Back returns to the list.
• Mini player – fast transitions from fullscreen to a live preview, with clear loading, buffering, paused and retrying states in the player panel.
• SponsorBlock – silently skips community-marked sections, with color-coded progress-bar marks and one Settings toggle. Segment data: SponsorBlock.
• Settings that stay focused – every option opens its own pop-up (list, multi-select or big slider) that captures the keys. Content language is separate from the app language.
• Layout direction is left-to-right by default; for Arabic-like languages PipeTv asks whether to mirror the layout (changeable any time in Settings).

Controls

Where	Key	Action
Anywhere	← from first column	Open the nav rail (→ in RTL languages)
Nav rail	↑ ↓ / →	Switch page / enter page
Grid	arrows, OK	Move, play fullscreen
Grid	Menu / Info	Details: about, comments, up next, channel, favorite
Grid / details	red or bookmark key	Add / remove favorite
Grid → edge	→	Focus the docked player (OK expands)
Fullscreen	OK / Space / K	Play / pause
Fullscreen	← → (hold to speed up) / J L	Seek 10 → 30 → 60 s
Fullscreen	↑	Player options: quality, speed, subtitles and audio language (pop-up menus)
Fullscreen	↓	Video details (player docks, you keep watching)
Fullscreen	0–9 / M / Back	Jump to 0–90 % / mute / minimise
Search	mic key, remote voice button	Voice search
Search	any physical keyboard	Type directly
Anywhere	media keys	Play, pause, next, stop, ffwd, rew
Nav rail	Back	Close the player, then exit

Install & update

Grab the latest PipeTv-*.apk from Releases and sideload it (adb install, Downloader, USB). After that PipeTv updates itself: Settings → Updates. Every push to main is built and published by CI, and a daily job releases a new build whenever NewPipeExtractor updates. Works with Obtainium too.

Build

./gradlew assembleRelease   # needs JDK 17 + Android SDK 35

Code map (every file ≤ 100 lines)

i18n/    K (string keys) · S (lookup, RTL) · lang/* (one file per language)
data/    Yt, YtMap, YtPages (extractor) · Feed · Store (timeline) · Prefs · Paged
media/   Engine (ExoPlayer) · Session (resume, subtitles, fallback) · Sources
ui/      Root · Controls/PlayerKeys · Grid · Nav · Hud · Dock · Settings · PlayerMenu
ui/input     Keyboard · Layouts · Voice          ui/search   SearchPage · Chips · SuggestList
ui/detail    DetailsView · ChannelPage · TextList  ui/timeline TimelineView
ui/widgets   Slider / Step / Toggle / Choice rows
update/  Updater · Installer

Add a language: new file in i18n/lang/, one line in S.all (and optionally a keyboard in Layouts).

Support PipeTv

PipeTv is free and always will be. If you'd like to help, tips are welcome:

	Address
Monero (XMR) – private, recommended	49H8xQ538uPf8dwmUCmq9GScNAZhMh6H51TQWTTcY5p4aXdg71z9raG16yGnaU1PGHWDg7doEmR3GfhVEniBMDb88fut64j
Bitcoin (BTC)	bc1qsghvgn84rmkjr3fjgc7gvkt4fqsxde6uk50ave

Star history

If PipeTv makes your TV nights better, a ★ helps others find it.

Not affiliated with YouTube or Google. Releases are signed with the open key in keystore/ so updates stay installable; fork and replace it for your own builds.