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Best YouTube app for iPad
- Thread starter max2
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Safari or Coast. Both play audio in background, are free, and you can view desktop versions with speed controls. YouTube is the worst app going, and there are few others since Google has closed the noose on development through various techniques. They don't want 3rd party clients because then they won't be able to control their paid plans. I mostly use Safari with tabs hidden. Coast is also very nice. It's the Opera browser but uses the same engine as Safari under the hood I believe.
YouTube will be the best Youtube client as it will be the only YouTube app that will probably update to iOS 9 and enable split screen multitasking on the iPad Air 2 before the third party alternatives.
I use Protube. Paid but very fast performance.
Protube is awesome, but it's extremely stuttery on my iPad mini 2. YouTube is bad with rotating as well. Kinda annoying. But yeah Protube is much faster at loading video in my experience, and there are much less issues with it randomly stopping for no reason, not working, refusing to load random videos, etc.
Protube has no ads, blocks ads that go before and during videos, you can play audio in the background, you can set default loading quality, set it to load the video as audio only... You used to be able to download videos for offline viewing but sadly, it had to be taken out due to violations to Google's terms. :/
YouTube app is fine for me. I only use it to watch short video and nothing else. If I wanted to watch a long video, YouTube app doesn't support CC so you will have to use on any browsers.
Only if you havent created a youtube channel... google wants your G+ profile as a pathetic company it is.
No idea. The app still works for me, though it had some issues with accessing subscribed content a while back.
I use protube on my iPad Air and iPhone 6 too. Best YouTube client by far. The standard YouTube app is just a shame. Takes forever to load videos, buffering, ads everywhere... And no background playback.
It has some trade offs tho. You don't get some features such as top comments for example. YouTube (Google) is freaking terrible with their 3rd party support.
It has some trade offs tho. You don't get some features such as top comments for example. YouTube (Google) is freaking terrible with their 3rd party support.
I tried over the years many apps, but found all of them useless due to annoying ads and lack of many resources. I bought this ProTube app and considered to be the best.
I sent a message to the developer, though, suggesting some things I would like to see in it, to consider it perfect:
- Captions:
I found the font size to be tiny, it could be bigger or adjustable. It's a little hard to read them with the current size. They could be just a little bigger.
- There's no support for 1440 or 2160p videos. All other players I tested had this limitation, too. Don't know why. iPad Pro 9.7 can play even 4K videos, and records, too.
- One finger gestures: perhaps these could be added for the playback of videos?
Drag left or right = response obtained = Seek. Currently, nothing happens when we do that. For an example of player who has that feature, check for nPlayer (free in App Store - it can do that with downloaded videos, does not work with YouTube. Infuse also has this feature, and I think it helps me a lot to watch anything)
Single tap (or double tap) : response = play/pause. Currently, nothing happens.
- And my final suggestion would be perhaps adding a button that can seek for the next 10 or 15 seconds of the video or seek in reverse. Netflix has that button (Podcasts for iOS, too), and it works with 10 seconds.
There is an app with this feature for video called iVideo, from Mustafa Pehlivan, for iPad in the Apple Store.
https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/ivideo-player-for-youtube/id887422562?mt=8
It's free, and can even download YT videos. However, I removed from my devices because it has too many annoying ads, and I already have another app that downloads from YT.
About apps that can download Youtube videos, I am currently using these:
https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/total-free-browser-file-manager/id557285579?mt=8
I don't think the paid version would be much improvement because it can't skip YOUTUBE ADS. If wasn't for that, I would recommend it.
There's also this one: https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/reprodutor-videos-e-gerenciador/id1082635984?mt=8
But one reviewer said that even after paid for the app, the message keeps asking for you to visit Apple-Store and pay again for it. That's why I'll also only use the free version.
I sent a message to the developer, though, suggesting some things I would like to see in it, to consider it perfect:
- Captions:
I found the font size to be tiny, it could be bigger or adjustable. It's a little hard to read them with the current size. They could be just a little bigger.
- There's no support for 1440 or 2160p videos. All other players I tested had this limitation, too. Don't know why. iPad Pro 9.7 can play even 4K videos, and records, too.
- One finger gestures: perhaps these could be added for the playback of videos?
Drag left or right = response obtained = Seek. Currently, nothing happens when we do that. For an example of player who has that feature, check for nPlayer (free in App Store - it can do that with downloaded videos, does not work with YouTube. Infuse also has this feature, and I think it helps me a lot to watch anything)
Single tap (or double tap) : response = play/pause. Currently, nothing happens.
- And my final suggestion would be perhaps adding a button that can seek for the next 10 or 15 seconds of the video or seek in reverse. Netflix has that button (Podcasts for iOS, too), and it works with 10 seconds.
There is an app with this feature for video called iVideo, from Mustafa Pehlivan, for iPad in the Apple Store.
https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/ivideo-player-for-youtube/id887422562?mt=8
It's free, and can even download YT videos. However, I removed from my devices because it has too many annoying ads, and I already have another app that downloads from YT.
About apps that can download Youtube videos, I am currently using these:
https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/total-free-browser-file-manager/id557285579?mt=8
I don't think the paid version would be much improvement because it can't skip YOUTUBE ADS. If wasn't for that, I would recommend it.
There's also this one: https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/reprodutor-videos-e-gerenciador/id1082635984?mt=8
But one reviewer said that even after paid for the app, the message keeps asking for you to visit Apple-Store and pay again for it. That's why I'll also only use the free version.
Last edited:
The latest update from ProTube adds 1440p/4K support.
Yes but is it only for iOS 10 really? I have the options on iOS 9.3.x !
I've been using Tubex for a while.
I don't like Safari's YouTube because it lacks the default iOS media player. I get annoyed because Tubex always starts where you left off on videos in your history which is annoying for music, but it supports PIP and a better music app.
I like having an app where I can browse videos without signing into to Google. I use FireFox for my iOS and macOS browser only for YouTube when signed in (I don't stay signed into Google in Safari for privacy reasons).
EDIT: I don't like the official app because if I do want to view something in Safari, it always opens the YouTube app and it doesn't support background playing last time I used it.
I don't like Safari's YouTube because it lacks the default iOS media player. I get annoyed because Tubex always starts where you left off on videos in your history which is annoying for music, but it supports PIP and a better music app.
I like having an app where I can browse videos without signing into to Google. I use FireFox for my iOS and macOS browser only for YouTube when signed in (I don't stay signed into Google in Safari for privacy reasons).
EDIT: I don't like the official app because if I do want to view something in Safari, it always opens the YouTube app and it doesn't support background playing last time I used it.
