NewPipe is an open-source YouTube client that lets you play YouTube videos on your smartphone without the YouTube app. This is helpful if you either do not like the YouTube app on Android or don't have Google Play Sevices installed, which is a requirement for the YouTube app. In regions where Google services aren't present or on phones from brands like Huawei that don't come with them pre-installed, NewPipe can be a good YouTube app alternative. It's also regularly updated with new features like the ability to stream DRM-free music and YouTube chapter support. Now, the latest NewPipe 0.21.14 update brings description snippets and an add to playlist option among other changes.

The latest NewPipe update not only introduces new features but also brings some quality-of-life improvements and fixes that would further improve the user experience. The first new feature is support for description snippets when you search for a video. This is essentially a small portion of the video's description displayed under each video in the search results. This helps the viewer get a basic idea about the video. Another new feature is the support for opening y2u.be links -- basically, links that use a link shortener like this.

New Pipe add to playlist option

A helpful new addition is the "Add to playlist" option that is now a part of the NewPipe Open menu. When you tap on a link outside of the app and choose to open it with NewPipe, you will now see an option to add the video to a playlist so that you can watch it later. This can be useful if you have multiple video links and want to queue the playback one after the other. NewPipe has also made it easier to update the app by adding a Check for Updates option in the app itself, if you've downloaded it from GitHub.

Finally, there's a new Mark as Watched option when you long-press videos in a playlist. If you have multiple videos in a playlist and lose track of what you've watched and what you haven't, you can use this option. Apart from these new features, there are some improvements too that have been added to the app. These include a toast notification for when the pop-up player opens, a revamped layout for playback controls, and a new feed refreshing experience.

You can download the latest version of NewPipe from its GitHub page. Here's the full changelog for the NewPipe 0.21.14 so that you get a better idea of all the new features and fixes:

  • New
    • Add a "add to playlist" option in the share menu
    • Add "Check for updates" button in update settings
    • Add support for y2u.be links
    • Support PeerTube short links
    • Show action to mark the stream as watched all long-press menus
  • Improved
    • Fix clicking timestamp shows Toast "Playing in popup mode"
    • Check if the background player is already active before displaying player toast
    • Added the 'Show Channel Details' menu item to the Queue long-press menu
    • Use custom TextViews and EditTexts in all XML resources
    • [Feed] Save "Show watched items" toggle's status
    • Simple playback-speed-controls improvements
    • Rework feed new items handling
  • Fixed
    • Fixed shuffle button opacity UI bug
    • Prevent automatic replay after returning from background
    • [YouTube] Likes and dislikes extraction