For those who aren't in the loop, if you like to use OSS, this isn't strictly open source. It is source available.
this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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So, can't fork if they throw users under the bus?
You can fork it, but not for commercial purposes.
https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/grayjay/-/blob/master/LICENSE.md
interesting, I haven't seen a licence like that before. I wonder why they didn't go with good ole GPL, as it prevents restrictive commercial use of software quite well.
Their logic is that they provide paid software similar to closed source companies, but give you the source code with it.
also "you may not remove or obscure any functionality in the software related to payment to the Licensor in any copy you distribute to others." 🤡
FUTO's license meets neither the free software definition nor the open source definition.
Would this license create complication in case someone wants to fork the project ? Usually, this is the safety of using open source software, should the original dev team go rouge, a team of blue dev might assemble and fork the project to at least prevent regression of capabilities.
No thanks. The 4 freedoms are essential. Everybody using this is going to be shocked when they implement ads and/or sell it.
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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Awesome, adding to my current arsenal of alternative clients alongside FreeTube and NewPipe. One less chance for YouTube to force me onto their webpage.
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
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.
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.
+1
Never had the issue, guess I'm on a good one lol
Could be regional too or follow some other intransparent pattern.
had a very hard time finding mullvad servers that could play youtube, but ivpn doesn't seem to have that issue at all
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.
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!
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.
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And it's an official flatpak! I've been waiting for anything better than that portable junk before.
I've tried pretty hard to make the switch to grayjay but there's always some snag for me. Sometimes grayjay related, other times service related. I hope the project continues to grow. for the moment I'll be sticking with newpipe and freetube.
the other futo projects are pretty neat, too. the android keyboard works really well.
I'm very happy with the mobile version. The desktop is still in Alpha though.
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.
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.
I love their FUTO voice keyboard input for android
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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Oh thank god, the tarball wouldnt work when i made a .desktop file for it for some reason
Yeah I know a lot of people had trouble with it.
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
Still need something for iOS. Currently I am using the DuckDuckGo browser app with the build in YouTube proxy player.
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.
We got like a dozen Android YT apps. You should probably just switch.
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I wish they did something with the database crash... It's annoying af
Cool!
Just wondering if this can do something that VLC cannot
I'll admit I only have a shallow familiarity with VLC, but I'd be surprised if it was capable of doing these things:
- Subscribe to Youtube channels (plus a bunch of other platforms)
- Get 'related' videos
- Browse and search individual channels
I've never even thought of VLC as a streaming media player.
VLC is my go-to for streaming local IP camera video.
Cool :)
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