VacuumTube is an unofficial wrapper of YouTube Leanback (the console and Smart TV version of YouTube) for the desktop.
It is not a custom client, YouTube Leanback is an official interface. This project simply encompasses it and makes it usable as a standalone desktop application.
YouTube Leanback is just an HTML5 app, and so you can just use it in your browser by going to https://www.youtube.com/tv, but they intentionally block browsers unless it’s one of their console or TV apps.
You can technically bypass this by spoofing your user agent, but it isn’t the same experience you’d get on a console or TV as it doesn’t support controllers outside of the official app, and it’s just a much more involved process to get it working.
VacuumTube solves all of this by wrapping it with Electron, pretending to be the YouTube app, implementing controller and touch support, and overall making it a much better experience than just spoofing your user agent.
This is free and open source software.
Website: github.com/shy1132/VacuumTube
Support:
Developer: shy
License: MIT License
VacuumTube is written in JavaScript. Learn JavaScript with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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| NeoDLP | Feature-rich video/audio downloader based on yt-dlp |
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Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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