Automatic updates by default

[maximiliankraft]

Checklist

• I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - which I could contribute my information to.
• I have read the FAQ and my problem isn't listed.
• I'm aware that this is a request for NewPipe itself and that requests for adding a new service need to be made at NewPipeExtractor.
• I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the feature request will be dismissed otherwise.
• This issue contains only one feature request.
• I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.

Feature description

The app updates itself. If that is not possible due to limitations from Android the user should be prompted to install the new app as soon as they open it.

Why do you want this feature?

I have some friends that got annoyed by YouTube ads so I showed them NewPipe. For a while it works on their phone but they aren't able to install a new version if one gets released. They aren't very tech savy. So if there is a new version just an easily dismissable notification isn't enough.

Additional information

No response

[absurdlylongusername]

This is something the app is supposed to do: a while back something was added that would show a notification to download latest NewPipe when you opened the app, but it stopped working and I am not sure why. I used to use it when it was working but it definitely isn't working anymore.

[litetex]

the user should be prompted to install the new app as soon as they open it.

Uhm is Settings > Updates > Updates toggle to on?

As soon as I enable it I get the notification that 0.28.0 is available.
Please note that the response from the server is cached for a few hours.

I have some friends that got annoyed by YouTube ads so I showed them NewPipe. For a while it works on their phone but they aren't able to install a new version if one gets released.

How did they install it?
If they installed it our recommended way via F-Droid there should be no problems as the app is updated automatically by F-Droid.

[absurdlylongusername]

@litetex I just downloaded 27.7 fresh from F-Droid and this is what I see in Settings.

There is no Updates section.

[ShareASmile]

Please note that the response from the server is cached for a few hours.

Yes, I noticed the prompt for app update didn't came for few hours after release but then it started showing. It was due to the reason explained above by litex.

How did they install it?
If they installed it our recommended way via F-Droid there should be no problems as the app is updated automatically by F-Droid.

Yes, that is the easy way to get updates for NewPipe which would suit your friends more.

I just downloaded 27.7 fresh from F-Droid and this is what I see in Settings.

There is no Updates section.

@davidasunmo have you double checked the version you downloaded from fdroid is actually 0.27.7 as I downloaded 0.27.7 from fdroid, updates section is there.

[absurdlylongusername]

@ShareASmile It says 27.7 in the About section, so unless there are two versions of 27.7 then it is definitely version 27.7

[absurdlylongusername]

@ShareASmile Also I don't think it being 27.7 matters anyway, because I know for a fact we had in app update notifications much earlier than that.

[litetex]

Version 27.7 does not exist. It's 0.27.7
Please keep the naming correct otherwise this will cause confusion.

---

If you download the app from anywhere else than our official F-Droid repo (newpipe.net) or our GitHub releases it will not do any checks for the latest version.
Why? Because Forks / other build services like F-Droid have custom release cycles which would make the update notification incorrect and cause useless requests to our infrastructure AFAIK.

For example the main F-Droid repo currently (as of 2025-08-02) has only 0.27.7 listed: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/

The whole logic can be found in ReleaseVersionUtil.kt and this behavior is effectively unchanged for the last 4+ years (I know that because I worked on it 4 years ago), so statements like "it stopped working now" make no sense to me.

BTW: The whole feature tracks back to #1531 and this issue is effectively a duplicate of it so I think we can close it ;)

[absurdlylongusername]

@litetex

Version 27.7 does not exist. It's 0.27.7
Please keep the naming correct otherwise this will cause confusion.

Tbh I think it's fairly obvious what I mean, so I don't think it's necessary to enforce this level of correctness in this conversation.

---

If you download the app from anywhere else than our official F-Droid repo (newpipe.net) or our GitHub releases it will not do any checks for the latest version.

Okay so I followed your instructions and I just downloaded 0.27.7 and 0.27.6 apks directly from our github releases. For some reason 0.27.7 would not open and it kept saying the app is not working. So I uninstalled it and downloaded 0.27.6 and I can see the Updates section in Settings.

However, I ran 0.27.7 in release mode in Android Studio and I cannot see Updates in settings. After looking through the code I presume this is because the apk is not signed with the correct hash.

Why? Because Forks / other build services like F-Droid have custom release cycles which would make the update notification incorrect and cause useless requests to our infrastructure AFAIK.

Not sure I understand the rationale behind this. We have APKs hosted on GitHub that are downloadable from the Releases page.

In NewVersionWorker.kt, I can see we are querying https://newpipe.net/api/data.json to get the latest version, which returns JSON with links to APKs that are not on GitHub, but either fdroid.org or newpipe.net. Why are we not getting APKs straight from GitHub?

Also, why exactly don't we want to show notifications for people who download from F-Droid? Currently, update notifications are opt-in by default anyway, but if the app is from F-Droid there isn't even an option to opt-in. I don't see the UX reasoning behind this, because at the end of the day the goal is to help users to get the latest version, so they should be allowed to choose whichever way they want to get it.

If it's opt-in by default I don't see the reason to remove the option to get update notifications simply because the apk doesn't have the correct hash. We should not hand hold users: let them opt-in if they want.

You said:

would make the update notification incorrect

But incorrect in what way exactly? Unless I'm mistaken, the only difference between GitHub .apk, FDroid .apk, and NewPipe's FDroid repo .apk is how it was signed. The actual functionality of the app and version is exactly the same. So, from a practical standpoint, they are all identical and none of them can be incorrect. People using forks should not be our concern because they should be assumed technical users so they should know what they're doing when they fork and use their own version of the app.

I was never aware that the reason I stopped getting update notifications is because I installed the app from F-Droid one time, nor do I think this information has been properly communicated.

I believe it would be most sensible to change the code to always show the Updates section and allow any user to opt-in to get update notifications in-app, inasmuch as they are using NewPipe. Since it is opt-in, there is no negative.

[litetex]

Also, why exactly don't we want to show notifications for people who download from F-Droid?

But incorrect in what way exactly?

Because F-Droid is not shipping 0.28.0 currently which makes the update notification "0.28.0 is available" effectively useless.
People will just create issues with "the app says 0.28.0 is available but I can't download it".

In NewVersionWorker.kt, I can see we are querying https://newpipe.net/api/data.json to get the latest version, which returns JSON with links to APKs that are not on GitHub, but either fdroid.org or newpipe.net. Why are we not getting APKs straight from GitHub?

That's likely historical: #1520 (comment)
However it's irrelevant if we contact GitHub or our servers for information about the latest release (however our servers are likely better in regards with data privacy).

Unless I'm mistaken, the only difference between GitHub .apk, FDroid .apk, and NewPipe's FDroid repo .apk is how it was signed. The actual functionality of the app and version is exactly the same. So, from a practical standpoint, they are all identical

https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe?tab=readme-ov-file#installation-and-updates

GitHub Releases and newpipe.net F-Droid repo APK are identical (they have the same certificate).
F-Droid's APK is built by F-Droid and signed by F-Droid and therefore not interchangeable.

I was never aware that the reason I stopped getting update notifications is because I installed the app from F-Droid one time

What you say is impossible: You can't switch between F-Droid's APK and ours because of the certificate. Did you reinstall the app or was it a fresh install maybe?

People using forks should not be our concern because they should be assumed technical users so they should know what they're doing when they fork and use their own version of the app.

We had a bunch of copycats that haven't even changed the bug reporting. People won't change this either.

at the end of the day the goal is to help users to get the latest version

To be fair in the year 2025 I don't understand why we have such a feature in the first place.
F-Droid can (since Android 13) auto update apps natively no need for special extensions or manual approvals.

NewPipe is literally the only app on my phone that can do manual version checking.
Usually a package manager like F-Droid should do the update management and not the app itself, because that's what package managers are there for.

[absurdlylongusername]

Because F-Droid is not shipping 0.28.0 currently which makes the update notification "0.28.0 is available" effectively useless.
People will just create issues with "the app says 0.28.0 is available but I can't download it".

I don't understand this. Are you saying that if someone downloads from F-Droid, and they try to download the apk from Github while the other NewPipe is still installed, it will not install in-place over the pre-existing F-Droid NewPipe? Because I have just installed F-Droid 27.7 in-place upgrade from 27.6 that I got from GitHub. Since F-Droid version doesn't check for updates, I can't check if it will work the other way around, but I am presuming that it can.

Okay so I can confirm I cannot install the GitHub apk on top of F-Droid, but I can install the F-Droid apk on top of GitHub.

However it's irrelevant if we contact GitHub or our servers for information about the latest release

I don't think it's irrelevant because you mentioned earlier about causing useless requests to our infrastructure. Moreover it would be more efficient to use GitHub's free infra to download APKs rather than providing it ourselves at cost.

Although, one may argue that relying on GitHub infra for NewPipe functionality would violate the tenets of F-Droid and NewPipe, to which I would say then we shouldn't be using GitHub in the first place.

What you say is impossible: You can't switch between F-Droid's APK and ours because of the certificate. Did you reinstall the app or was it a fresh install maybe?

As mentioned above, it is not impossible: I can install an apk from github, and then open F-Droid and click Update to a later version. I am not using NewPipe's F-Droid repository.

We had a bunch of copycats that haven't #539 (comment). People won't change this either.

This... I am not sure how to deal with 😅. So, if I'm getting this right, this means that people stealing the app and branding it as their own, using the exact same source code, and then someone who end up downloads it will end up receiving in-app notifications for the real NewPipe app?

If these criminals are that naive, lazy and stupid then perhaps we could just do something simple like check the app name instead of checking the commit hash, which would be a more holistic comparison that could still detect actual NewPipe apps that do not have the correct hash.

To be fair in the year 2025 I don't understand why we have such a feature in the first place.
F-Droid can (since Android 13) auto update apps natively no need for special extensions or manual approvals.

I would agree, but I disagree for the following reasons:

1. Our release process is too slow and manual
2. F-Droid release process is also slow by result
3. Not everybody is on Android 13+ (me being one of them)
4. Not everybody uses F-Droid
5. We lose nothing by having in-app update notifications, and gain nothing by removing it

NewPipe development has been extremely slow unfortunately and we are lacking in many areas, so until those areas are fixed I don't think it's worth removing this feature.

[litetex]

Okay so I can confirm I cannot install the GitHub apk on top of F-Droid, but I can install the F-Droid apk on top of GitHub.

That's impossible

NP12484-2.webm

1004 is from F-Droid's repo all others are from our official GitHub releases and signed by us

Moreover it would be more efficient to use GitHub's free infra to download APKs rather than providing it ourselves at cost.

You can talk to other team members but we are extremely privacy driven.
Also GitHub has no support for IPv6 which would cause issues.

1. Our release process is too slow and manual

I'm not sure what that has to do with the issue here. When the release is published it's also instantly available on our F-Droid repo.

5. We lose nothing by having in-app update notifications, and gain nothing by removing it

We are currently having this gigantic discussion to clarify that it works as intended and was in fact not broken. So I would say that there is an advantage in completely removing it.

NewPipe development has been extremely slow unfortunately and we are lacking in many areas, so until those areas are fixed I don't think it's worth removing this feature.

👍