Remove the built-in update notification

[litetex]

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

All code related to the built in update notification should be removed.

Why do you want this feature?

IMHO this has outlived it's original intentions as described in #1531:

• Originally there was no custom F-Droid repo (at newpipe.net). Releases were distributed using GitHub releases and F-Droid's own repo, which significantly delayed updates. Nowadays this is no longer the case as we have our own repo.
  • F-Droid can inform users about updates which is basically exactly the same as the app currently does internally.
• It was initially implemented because said external functionality was not present - there was just GitHub releases. See the original issue for details.
• With Android 13's it's possible for app stores/package managers to update apps automatically (Example: F-Droid basic). Previously user interaction or something like a privileged extension were required.
  • As of 2025-04 this currently available on over 60% of all phones

Removing this code also has the following advantages:

• We no longer need to maintain it
• There can be no confusion why the features is not available or how it works
  • see Automatic updates by default #12484

Additional information

Created due to #12484

[KyrbySwiUtch]

I honestly do not think removing this optional feature does any good. The only thing I could imagine this doing is VERY SLIGHTLY removing the apps size and VERY SLIGHTLY decreasing the bandwidth usage as it would nolonger check for updates. In BY FAR the most cases of todays technology, these literally make no impact. In case you just do not like the notification and are unaware: It is toggleable in the settings.

You mentioned that it would nolonger need maintenence and could nolonger confuse people. While I do think it's fine to say that it could be off by default and that it could be one of the lowest priority things to fix/maintain, I do not see the point in completely removing it at once. In my opinion, it serves a nice purpose and if one does not require it, it can simply be disabled.

About having to fix it if there are errors: At least for me it seems to work fine. And if it was giving reduntant notifications, it can still be disabled.

Just my opinion on this. I do not know if many people actually want to have this completely removed, I personally just do not see the point as I think it's fine as the optional and low priority feature that it currently is.

Also, I feel like we shouldn't be opening issues about randomly removing things that are optional anyways, in a time where we have bigger things to deal with like the entire rework of Newpipe and Google bulling third party services.

(I'm not saying little requests like this should be silenced, I just think this really does not have priority rn in my opinion)

[absurdlylongusername]

@litetex I disagree with this for the reasons stated in my response in #12484

[KyrbySwiUtch]

As @davidasunmo already mentioned in #12484 , we should not expect everyone to just "have android 13" and thus not require this. Many users (including myself as well) may for various reasons, voluntary or not, be on Android versions lower than 13 (I could talk about customized Android-like OS's here but I'll leave that to someone else in case it becomes necessary). I strongly belive that we should never remove a feature like this that gives an alternate (and again, OPTIONAL) method to achieve something vital, just because newer versions have alternatives. Since this feature to my knowledge brings no downside or large cost, I do not see a sufficient argument to remove it.

In my opinion this issue should be closed for now unless/until a large part of the community or the developers see a huge issue in the cost or purpose of maintaining this.

[litetex]

Also, I feel like we shouldn't be opening issues about randomly removing things that are optional anyways

This issue was just opened so that it can be tracked. This is by now way anything that will be implemented immediately and more of an idea like the other 10k issues we had so far. Feedback here is welcome.

just because newer versions have alternatives

You can also install F-Droid on your older Android versions and it will show notifications that updates are available - which is the same as the app currently does.
Since Android 13 it can additionally also automatically install updates.

Look all I'm saying is that the same functionality exists outside of the app so why should we maintain it also inside of it?
It was initially implemented because said external functionality was not present (there was just GitHub releases).
If the original issue would pop up nowadays it would have near 0 chance of getting implemented.

I also modified the issue so that these points are better explained.

[runningvisor]

What about people who don't want to use F-Droid, but instead downloaded the APK directly? Currently, the update notification appears when there's a new update and it's really convenient because tapping it takes you straight to your browser which automatically starts downloading the new updated APK.

I do wish when manually checking for updates it would appear as a dialog, though.

[absurdlylongusername]

@litetex Responding to your comment on #12484 here instead, because that issue is technically already resolved.

That's impossible

It goes without saying that I am not lying. So your experience, and the method you are using to update the app is not what I am doing.

"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."

That is not the method you are using in that video.

Also GitHub has no support for IPv6 which would cause issues.

Yikes. Okay, let's not do that then lol.

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.

I wouldn't say it's gigantic. Regardless, this is due to lack of proper documentation, and not necessarily because the feature is bad. Also, this discussion is still a useful discussion to have. Such "advantage" is negligible.

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.

Fair enough.

[Stypox]

I disagree and use this feature on all devices I manage (e.g. my grandma's) as a quick link to download the new version. I agree that this check has outlived its intentions, but I would rather make it so that the app can also auto-update rather than removing the feature completely. This would help a lot on such devices, as I would not have to do manual stuff on them every time there is an update, but everyone would be able to just click the update button when they get a notification or a popup.

In theory it's true that on Android 13+ package managers can update apps automatically in the background, but every phone is different and stuff not always works (at least I know that on the phones I manage after a while the system stops waking up F-Droid and so no updates happen anymore, despite the option to auto-update being enabled). Also there are still plenty of people which are not yet on Android 13+, and in this case I wouldn't consider Android 12- devices as "old", there has basically been no serious change in Android since Android 10.