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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Hugely popular third-party YouTube app "ProTube" was quietly removed from the App Store by Apple last week. Apple's decision to pull the app followed several takedown requests from Google that were received by the app's developer.

ProTube was hailed by users during its three-year reign for several features either not available in the official YouTube app or not offered by other third-party apps, such as the ability to play videos in 4K at 60 frames per second, background playback, and an audio-only mode. Over its lifetime, the $5 app reached number 1 in the paid app charts in 11 different countries and the top 10 in 57 countries.

protube-1-800x709.jpg

In a statement on his website, developer Jonas Gessner said he was "very sad to announce that ProTube was removed from the App Store by Apple on September 1, 2017". The action reportedly came "after multiple requests and threats by YouTube which ultimately led Apple to suddenly pulling the app from the App Store", said Gessner.
YouTube first requested Apple to remove my app well over a year ago, initially just stating that my app violates their Terms of Service. This was a generic takedown request they sent to many YouTube apps at once. They later started going into more detail, even stating that I could not sell the app as that alone violates their ToS. They basically wanted me to remove every feature that made ProTube what it is - that includes the player itself that allows you to play 60fps videos, background playback, audio only mode and more.

Without those features ProTube would not be any better than YouTube's own app, and that is exactly what they want to achieve. YouTube wants to sell its $10/month [YouTube Red] subscription service which offers many features that ProTube also offered for a lower one time price, so they started hunting down 3rd party YouTube apps on the App Store.
Gessner said he initially considered several options to end the dispute with YouTube, including removing all the contested features and making the app free, but ultimately he decided against this because "everyone who paid for ProTube's standout features would suddenly get an app update that removes all those features, resulting in a useless app".

The developer also tried to negotiate with YouTube to come to some sort of agreement, but found the process "very difficult" and claimed he was unable to get a direct response to his questions. After threats of legal action, "I knew that getting sued could cost me more than I ever made with ProTube," he said.

"While it is absolutely awful seeing ProTube getting pulled from the App Store, it was the best solution when it comes to the users that already purchased the app," admitted Gessner. "I was getting screwed either way but I at least didn't want to screw my users."

Many other third-party YouTube apps on the App Store have been targeted by YouTube with takedown requests, according to the developer, who signed off by thanking ProTube's "big and passionate fanbase" and warning people not to be taken in by the fake ProTube apps that have appeared on the App Store since it was first released.

Article Link: Apple Pulls Popular Third-Party YouTube App 'ProTube' From the App Store
 

v1597psh

macrumors regular
Feb 4, 2014
244
396
London
Hopefully it'll remain available in the Purchased tab. The alternative remains, which is more intuitive in my opinion, is Tubi
 

alexgowers

macrumors 65816
Jun 3, 2012
1,338
892
I feel for the guy. I don't really know what to think about the situation in general, it's tricky once you start charging anything for third party content. Someone is gonna be unhappy about it.

There is no safety net for 3rd party app/network/platform developers and they can lock you out at any moment while benefiting from you spreading that platforms popularity. Youtube itself doesn't make any profits and I don't really see anyone coming close and no one can compete for no profits. As a monopoly it gets a bit sketchy when they do things like this, it certainly doesn't make me feel good about Google at all.
 

adamjackson

macrumors 68020
Jul 9, 2008
2,334
4,730
YouTube is within their right to strong-arm the developer in this way. They have a vested interest in killing any 3rd party application that allows users to avoid paying $10 a month for YouTube Red.

I'm a ProTube 2 user. Never saw an ad, could play videos while application is in the background and it had far less UI overload compared to YouTube. I can understand why they would want to kill it.

However, my use case was likely unique. I do subscribe to YouTube Red but ProTube has one advantage. I don't like watching YouTube Videos in the YT application. Sometimes I want to watch them in Safari when someone sends me a link. With YouTube installed, YT links would open the official application. Since Apple doesn't allow me to pick which application opens when I click a link, I eventually uninstalled YouTube from my iPad but their web UI for viewing subscriptions doesn't work well on iPad so I started using ProTube.

ProTube allows me to watch users I've subscribed to but it does not open by default when I click a YouTube link in my web browser or email.

I did enjoy the fact that when I got a text message, I could tab over to it without the video stopping. I don't use the feature like YouTube thinks I do (playing music in the background). I use it to multi-task w/o a video stopping.
 

DJTaurus

macrumors 68000
Jan 31, 2012
1,645
1,053
We should create a petition to Apple to bring it back. And ofcource boycott the official app.... Google still dont support background audio on their app. They want us always online and using their c..py app.
 

Krizoitz

macrumors 68000
Apr 26, 2003
1,725
2,067
Tokyo, Japan
When Google and Apple cooperate together, the duopoly is capable of great evil. :p

How is it evil? YouTube is Google's service. The developer was charging money to access a service he doesnt own or have any right to. It would be like your neighbor charging people to use the power from your house. He should be happy he gets to keep the money he already made.
 

willmtaylor

macrumors G4
Oct 31, 2009
10,314
8,198
Here(-ish)
How is it evil? YouTube is Google's service. The developer was charging money to access a service he doesnt own or have any right to. It would be like your neighbor charging people to use the power from your house. He should be happy he gets to keep the money he already made.
Get your facts straight.

The dev charged money for an app he spent the time and energy to create and maintain which had benefits and features the YouTube app did not/would not.

Your analogy is off-base.
[doublepost=1504526444][/doublepost]
If the official YT app had a one off fee to enable background playback and reduce ads I'd pay it in a heartbeat. But no, they want me to pay MORE than a Netflix subscription for that tiny privilege. Google can f-off.
Google is, above all, an ad agency, so users must pay dearly and repeatedly to opt out of their ads.
 

RamGuy

macrumors 65816
Jun 7, 2011
1,349
1,899
Norway
What the h**l?? I use this app every, single, day... Google refuses to launch YouTube Red in my country so I can't have simple things like background playback using the official app... No picture-in-picture on my huge 12-inch iPad Pro.... This is a major punch in the face for me. This seriously reduces my YouTube experience on all my iOS-devices.

Hopefully it won't remove the app from my existing devices but I guess it won't be updated and Google tends to change how the YouTube feed works so it only a matter of weeks before the app won't work without a new update...

God damn, Google.. Like seriously?
 

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,458
21,847
Singapore
Get your facts straight.

The dev charged money for an app he spent the time and energy to create and maintain which had benefits and features the YouTube app did not/would not.

Your analogy is off-base.
[doublepost=1504526444][/doublepost]
Google is, above all, an ad agency, so users must pay dearly and repeatedly to opt out of their ads.
To be fair, there were no ads in protube. I can see how this represents a conflict of interests for YouTube. In the years I have used protube, I never saw a single ad and I am sure that would have resulted in some loss of income for Google.
 

willmtaylor

macrumors G4
Oct 31, 2009
10,314
8,198
Here(-ish)
To be fair, there were no ads in protube. I can see how this represents a conflict of interests for YouTube. In the years I have used protube, I never saw a single ad and I am sure that would have resulted in some loss of income for Google.
Yeah, I get that. They are the largest advertising agency in the world. However, they also arbitrarily restrict features unless folks fork over $10 a month. Ridiculous.
 

RamGuy

macrumors 65816
Jun 7, 2011
1,349
1,899
Norway
YouTube is within their right to strong-arm the developer in this way. They have a vested interest in killing any 3rd party application that allows users to avoid paying $10 a month for YouTube Red.

I'm a ProTube 2 user. Never saw an ad, could play videos while application is in the background and it had far less UI overload compared to YouTube. I can understand why they would want to kill it.

However, my use case was likely unique. I do subscribe to YouTube Red but ProTube has one advantage. I don't like watching YouTube Videos in the YT application. Sometimes I want to watch them in Safari when someone sends me a link. With YouTube installed, YT links would open the official application. Since Apple doesn't allow me to pick which application opens when I click a link, I eventually uninstalled YouTube from my iPad but their web UI for viewing subscriptions doesn't work well on iPad so I started using ProTube.

ProTube allows me to watch users I've subscribed to but it does not open by default when I click a YouTube link in my web browser or email.

I did enjoy the fact that when I got a text message, I could tab over to it without the video stopping. I don't use the feature like YouTube thinks I do (playing music in the background). I use it to multi-task w/o a video stopping.


One can't really fault Google/TeamYouTube here. The major problem is how Google/TeamYouTube is incapable of realising YouTube Red outside just a extremely limited set of countries. And the their app doesn't not care one bit if you are in a country without access to YouTube Red or not so pretty much everyone outside Australia, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and the United States have no way to access pretty basic functionality like background audio playback, picture-in-picture etc.. Which is beyond stupid in 2017.


You should not ban the use of third-party applications that give access to basic functionality that your very own is incapable of delivering until you have said functionality available world-wide.. It's beyond me how Google/TeamYouTube is not able to expand YouTube Red in a much more efficient pace. They have full control over their own network (YouTube) so there is no cross-country licensing or any other issues that should limit their capabilities of simply offering the service world-wide from the get-go. Still the service is only available in an extremely limited amount of countries over a year after the service was launched. Why do they even limit things like background audio playback and picture-in-picture behind a paywall to begin with? It doesn't make much sense...
 

IGI2

macrumors 6502a
May 6, 2015
548
511
I don't like watching YouTube Videos in the YT application. Sometimes I want to watch them in Safari when someone sends me a link. With YouTube installed, YT links would open the official application. Since Apple doesn't allow me to pick which application opens when I click a link, I eventually uninstalled YouTube from my iPad but their web UI for viewing subscriptions doesn't work well on iPad so I started using ProTube.
You just need to hold the link a bit longer:
IMG_0450.PNG


I know it's in Polish, but you can see there is an option to Open in Safari or Open in "App Name" (YouTube in this case).
 
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Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,458
21,847
Singapore
YouTube is within their right to strong-arm the developer in this way. They have a vested interest in killing any 3rd party application that allows users to avoid paying $10 a month for YouTube Red.

I'm a ProTube 2 user. Never saw an ad, could play videos while application is in the background and it had far less UI overload compared to YouTube. I can understand why they would want to kill it.

However, my use case was likely unique. I do subscribe to YouTube Red but ProTube has one advantage. I don't like watching YouTube Videos in the YT application. Sometimes I want to watch them in Safari when someone sends me a link. With YouTube installed, YT links would open the official application. Since Apple doesn't allow me to pick which application opens when I click a link, I eventually uninstalled YouTube from my iPad but their web UI for viewing subscriptions doesn't work well on iPad so I started using ProTube.

ProTube allows me to watch users I've subscribed to but it does not open by default when I click a YouTube link in my web browser or email.

I did enjoy the fact that when I got a text message, I could tab over to it without the video stopping. I don't use the feature like YouTube thinks I do (playing music in the background). I use it to multi-task w/o a video stopping.

Consider using the app "opener".

Opener ‒ open links in apps by tijo, inc.
https://itunes.apple.com/sg/app/opener-open-links-in-apps/id989565871?mt=8
 

JosephAW

macrumors 603
May 14, 2012
5,917
7,844
Next Google will drop all iOS Safari support and require all videos to be played through their app.
I'm glad I'm finding more and more good video content that can be streamed from other video providers with better content than google.
 

Glassed Silver

macrumors 68020
Mar 10, 2007
2,096
2,567
Kassel, Germany
One of my favorite apps of all time.

I always wondered how it remained available for so long on the App Store.

Especially after Google's assault on plugins for the official Android app recently.

Now if YT's app didn't suck as much as it does I'd not be worried at all, but to think that eventually I won't be able to watch YT in PiP on iOS anymore is pretty stupid.

Background audio is for music subscribers I get it, so split it out and make the various other stuff I watch on YT available to be played in the background. Jesus Christ...

Glassed Silver:ios
 
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