SmartTube Droid Get the APK

Open source · Android 5.0+ · Free

Watch
without
the noise.

SmartTube Droid is a free, open-source media client for Android phones. It plays what you came for and leaves out everything that was bolted on around it.

Download for AndroidLatest release · APK How to install

Not in any store yet. You install it yourself, and it takes about thirty seconds.

01 - What it does

The whole app is the player.
Everything else got out of the way.

  1. 01

    Nothing plays before your video

    Ads never load. Sponsored reads, intros and self-promotion are cut automatically and marked on the seek bar, so you can see exactly what was skipped and jump back if you want it.

  2. 02

    Made for thumbs, not a remote

    Double-tap the edges to seek. Drag anywhere to scrub. Slide the left edge for brightness and the right for volume. Pinch to fit or fill. Press and hold to run at double speed.

  3. 03

    Keeps going when you leave

    Audio continues with the screen off, and picture-in-picture follows you into other apps. Playback speed, quality and subtitles stay where you set them.

  4. 04

    Your library, only if you ask

    Sign in with a code shown on screen to pull in your subscriptions, playlists and history. Skip that step and the app works exactly the same, signed out.

  5. 05

    Runs on plain Android

    No proprietary vendor services needed, so it works on stripped-down and older phones. Android 5.0 is enough. Portrait, landscape and a proper full-screen player.

  6. 06

    Open all the way down

    Every line is public and the release builds are produced in the open by CI. There is no analytics SDK, no crash reporter and no account belonging to the app itself.

02 - The touch layer

A screen you can drive
with one hand.

The engine came from a player designed for a remote control, where every action was a press of a direction key. All of that was thrown out and rebuilt around the way people actually hold a phone.

  • Double-tap left or right to jump back or forward
  • Vertical drag on the left edge dims the screen
  • Vertical drag on the right edge sets volume
  • Pinch to switch between fit and fill
  • Long-press anywhere for 2× while you hold
Brightness Hold · 2× Volume −10s +10s pinch · fit / fill
Gesture map of the full-screen player

Early days

The app is young and rough in places. It works and gets used daily, but you will find bugs. Comments, live chat and seek-preview thumbnails aren't built yet, and voice search is only as good as the recogniser on your phone.

Reports genuinely help. Open an issue ↗

03 - Install

Three steps, no store.

1

Pick a build

Take arm64-v8a if your phone is from roughly 2016 onward. If it refuses to install, use the universal build, which is bigger but runs anywhere.

2

Open the file

Tap the downloaded APK and allow installs from your browser when Android asks. That prompt appears for anything installed outside a store; it isn't about this app.

3

Replacing an old copy?

If you previously had a build signed with a different key, uninstall it first. Android blocks updates when the signature changes.

Downloads

All release notes ↗

Only install builds from the release page above. Copies posted on APK mirrors and blogs are uploaded by strangers and can carry anything.

04 - Where it runs

Android today.
More on the way.

Available

Android

Direct APK from the release page, always the current build.

Download ↗
Planned

F-Droid

A listing in the free-software app catalogue, so updates arrive without hunting for files.

In preparation
Later

iOS

A version for iPhone is on the roadmap once the Android build settles down.

On the roadmap

Why this matters

Android is about to make apps
like this one much harder to install.

From 2027, Android is set to require every developer on earth to register centrally and hand over government identification before their apps can be installed on a certified device, including apps you download yourself, from wherever you like. Independent, unfunded, one-person software is precisely what a rule like that removes.

Over seventy organisations across twenty-three countries have signed an open letter against it. If you value being able to put whatever you want on hardware you paid for, the campaign is worth ten minutes of your time.

keepandroidopen.org

05 - Questions

Reasonable things to ask.

Why isn't it in an app store?

Right now the release page is the only place it lives. An F-Droid listing is being prepared, which will handle updates for you. Until then, downloading the APK yourself is the way in.

Is installing an APK safe?

It's as safe as the source you take it from. These builds are compiled by CI from public source and signed with the same key each time, and the release page shows what was produced. Files described as this app on other sites were uploaded by other people, and nobody is checking them.

Does it collect anything about me?

No. There's no analytics library, no crash-reporting service and no account for the app itself. If you choose to sign in for your own library, that session stays on your device.

Will it work on my TV or TV box?

Not this build. The whole interface assumes a touchscreen. Big screens driven by a remote are covered by the original project this one grew out of.

How do updates work?

Manually for now: download the newer APK and open it. Keep the same architecture you installed the first time, and don't uninstall in between, or you'll lose your settings.

Can I build it myself?

Yes. Clone the repository with its submodules, point it at JDK 17 and the Android SDK, and run the Gradle assemble task. The readme has the exact commands.

Put it on your phone.

Free, open source, a single small file, and nothing to sign up for.

Download the appAndroid 5.0 or newer