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Cross-platform video player GrayJay now available as Flatpak (flathub.org)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Ulrich@feddit.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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Compatible with PeerTube. Unfortunately there is no login support but you can search, watch and subscribe to videos in the same feed with youtube and whatever else.

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[-] StarlightDust 36 points 4 months ago

For those who aren't in the loop, if you like to use OSS, this isn't strictly open source. It is source available.

[-] ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

No thanks. The 4 freedoms are essential. Everybody using this is going to be shocked when they implement ads and/or sell it.

[-] nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago

Its license is more of forbidding anyone to use it for commercial purpose. People still can fork it for non-commercial purpose.

https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/grayjay/-/blob/master/LICENSE.md

It's not ideal but I won't blame them. Huge chunk of casual consumer FOSS are distrubuted without permission on mobile, slapping ads and other monetization. Notably, almost all Minecraft clone on Android are based Minetest/Luanti.

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[-] monovergent@lemmy.ml 26 points 4 months ago

Awesome, adding to my current arsenal of alternative clients alongside FreeTube and NewPipe. One less chance for YouTube to force me onto their webpage.

[-] chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 4 months ago

NewPipe stopped work if you use a VPN, LibreTube instances all gone, Invidious few instances are working but not 100% of time, GrayJay most of time asks for login because Google indicates it is a bot

Dark times to watch Youtube

[-] gay_sex@mander.xyz 9 points 4 months ago

PipePipe works perfectly for me with a VPN. FreeTube also works, but I have to change the VPN server once in a while.

If all else fails, yt-dlp.

[-] GluWu@lemm.ee 4 points 4 months ago

Newpipe currently works fine for me on a VPN. Revanced still works and I haven't patched it in like a year now. Maybe 1/100 videos with freetube will throw a IP block on VPN and usually I don't even need to change it, just reload the page. Occasionally freetube stops working for a few days which I can just use librewolf with unlock if I really want.

I'm not having any problems, other than watching too much YouTube.

[-] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 months ago

It depends on the VPN. Google just blocks anything that it knows to be a VPN IP, so if they dont know the IP yet, they dont block it.

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[-] gamer@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago

GrayJay most of time asks for login because Google indicates it is a bot

Whenever it does that, I just open the Google login page and start clicking links (like the privacy policy, FAQ, reset password, etc) to "prove" that I'm human. That usually works at least for one video, if not more.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 3 points 4 months ago

GrayJay most of time asks for login because Google indicates it is a bot

GrayJay does not ask for login, Google does. It will do the same thing if you navigate to the YT webpage.

[-] Big_Lem@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago

IT IS MY VPN WTFFFF. I though id fucked up my pihole triggered some bot prevention on yt via np. yooooooo omg thnx for this comment!

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[-] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 11 points 4 months ago

And it's an official flatpak! I've been waiting for anything better than that portable junk before.

[+] hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

[deleted]

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 3 points 4 months ago

I'm very happy with the mobile version. The desktop is still in Alpha though.

[-] Amaterasu@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I eco this, I like the app.

I can stream not only YT but also PeerTube videos from content creators that I follow. For me this is the big appeal that GrayJay provides and is pretty much underrated. One can have a centralized video platform with GrayJay.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

I love their FUTO voice keyboard input for android

[-] Classy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

Thank you for the recommendation, I just switched everything to FUTO. I'm hoping it well grow to be as accurate as SwiftKey used to be years back...

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[-] gamer@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah personally I much prefer Freetube's UI over Grayjay (on desktop at least). For example, the subscription feed has an annoyingly huge list of subscribed channels that takes up like 25% of the screen real-estate, and you can't hide it. It's also pointless because there's another list of your subscriptions on the left side of the screen. It also can't be launched automatically when opening a YT link with the LibRedirect firefox extension, whereas Freetube can.

But besides design issues like that, Grayjay is much more reliable than Freetube when it comes to bypassing Youtube's bot protections.

[-] LeTak@lemm.ee 7 points 4 months ago

Still need something for iOS. Currently I am using the DuckDuckGo browser app with the build in YouTube proxy player.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 6 points 4 months ago

We got like a dozen Android YT apps. You should probably just switch.

[-] LeTak@lemm.ee 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Jokes on you, I have a second phone with revanced. I switched to iOS after being on Android from version 2-11. It just would be nice to have it also on the iPhone. Or I quit YouTube, by the time it should be full with AI videos….

[-] gramgan@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

Brave works well on iOS for this use case.

[-] Ptsf@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Harder since Apple bans this sort of gray-area software development in their store. There are some alternatives you can currently side load I believe though, but they require you pay the apple developer tax for a apple developer account last I checked.

[-] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 months ago

Oh thank god, the tarball wouldnt work when i made a .desktop file for it for some reason

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah I know a lot of people had trouble with it.

[-] gamer@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

Wow, I thought that was just a weird bug with my system config. It actually started working a couple of weeks ago, but for the longest time I could only launch it by double-clicking it through dolphin lol

[-] Cris16228@lemmy.today 3 points 4 months ago

I wish they did something with the database crash... It's annoying af

[-] Steamymoomilk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago

Sweet! Ive made a beta build of it in nix ive been using for the last 4 months and its VERY buggy.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 3 points 4 months ago

It is indeed, that's why it's labeled Alpha.

[-] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

Cool!

[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 2 points 4 months ago

Ugh, bad news

[-] deathbird@mander.xyz 4 points 4 months ago

Why bad?

[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 3 points 4 months ago

More people using these shitty package managers means more people will download malware

Unlike apt, this doesn't require signatures

[-] deathbird@mander.xyz 4 points 4 months ago

Fair.

[-] Richat@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

Say No to Flatpaks on YOUR Install!

[-] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

Why?

[-] CafecitoHippo@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

I don't like flatpaks because they never feel cohesive visually on my system.

[-] lilith267 4 points 4 months ago

Sounds like you (or your distro) setup a portal wrong, they should read your theme configs and settings the same as any native application

[-] Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago

Because everyone has a problem with something Linux that they think makes them cool.

[-] conspiracypentester@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Holy moly! Size of this app on fdroid is 414.4MB. Why is that?

[-] Mwa@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

Cool :)

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this post was submitted on 27 May 2025

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