PipePipeD

PipePipeD is a personal, signed fork of PipePipe (a NewPipe-based Android client) that adds DeArrow support and a reproducible Nix/CI signed-release pipeline. It installs alongside the official app (distinct application ID wtf.pipepiped.release, app name "PipePipeD") and tracks upstream InfinityLoop1308/PipePipe, staying current by rebasing.

This top portion documents only how PipePipeD differs from upstream. The complete, unmodified upstream PipePipe README begins at "PipePipe (upstream)" further down.

Maintainers: keep the changes from upstream list in sync with docs/progress.md whenever fork behavior changes (see CLAUDE.md).

About this fork

PipePipe is a thin meta-repo: the real code lives in submodules (PipePipeClient is the app, PipePipeExtractor is the extractor library). PipePipeD follows a fork-only-what-we-modify strategy — only PipePipeClient is forked (to HritwikSinghal/PipePipeClient, branch patch); the extractor stays pinned to upstream. This meta-repo's patch branch repoints the client submodule at the fork and is the default branch.

The goal is to stay a thin, rebase-friendly layer on top of PipePipe: git fetch upstream + rebase keeps the fork current, and all fork build changes are additive so upstream's build stays byte-for-byte unchanged when the fork properties are absent (preserving F-Droid reproducibility). DeArrow itself is implemented entirely in the client at the view layer, resolved at render time with a fall-back to the original on any miss — it never mutates extractor models.

PipePipeD — changes from upstream

Everything in this section is what differs from upstream; the rest of this README (below) is upstream's, unchanged.

DeArrow — crowdsourced de-clickbait titles & thumbnails (YouTube)

• Replacement titles from the DeArrow community on every surface: feed/lists, video detail, the player, the now-playing queue, and info dialogs. Optional auto-formatting of SHOUTING titles. This includes the experimental Compose UI (Settings -> Appearance -> Use experimental new UI): with it on, upstream routes the channel page, search, related videos, remote playlists, watch history and local playlists through Compose item rows, which the fork now decorates too -- titles, thumbnails and the toggle badge all behave as they do in the classic UI.
• Replacement thumbnails on lists and video detail. The original is always kept until a DeArrow frame actually loads, so a not-yet-generated frame never leaves a blank thumbnail.
• Interactive toggle badge — a star on each thumbnail flips that row between the DeArrow and the original title + thumbnail; replaced titles can also be marked with a small icon.
• Settings -> DeArrow: enable DeArrow, replace titles, auto-format titles, mark replaced titles, replace thumbnails, and "use random video frames" (random-frame fallback for videos with no community submission; off by default — a random frame is often less representative than the channel's own thumbnail), plus clear the DeArrow cache and links to the DeArrow site & privacy policy. Changing any of these takes effect on what is already on screen, rather than only on the next time a row is rebuilt.
• Searchable replacements — the filter box in playlists, watch history, and the subscription feed matches the DeArrow title a row is showing as well as the original stored one, so typing what you can see finds it.
• Persistent two-tier cache (memory -> on-disk, survives restart) with stale-while-revalidate, 404-only negative caching, bounded transient retries, rate-limit backoff, and ahead-of-bind prefetching. Independent of the image cache: Settings -> Advanced -> Download thumbnails clears thumbnails only and no longer discards downloaded DeArrow titles.
• Polite to the DeArrow API. Every request to the single volunteer-run host goes through one of two fixed thread pools -- 3 for what a visible row is waiting on, 1 low-priority for background revalidation -- so no scroll, page load or cold start can burst it. Refreshing a stale bucket sends If-None-Match, so an unchanged bucket costs a few hundred bytes of headers instead of re-downloading ~17 KB. Requests are k-anonymous (hash-prefix buckets, no cookies) and identify the app by User-Agent.

Instant video detail page

• Tapping a video from the feed, search, history, or a playlist renders the thumbnail, title, channel, duration, and view count immediately from the item you tapped, instead of a blank page for ~2 s while the full video info loads. The description, related videos, comments, and play controls fill in as soon as the fetch returns.

Build, packaging & release

• Nix toolchain for reproducible builds and a one-command signed release (see Building & installing below): nix run .#build / .#debug / .#install.
• Installs alongside the official app — distinct applicationId and PipePipeD app name.
• Signed GitHub Actions release (workflow_dispatch, keystore via repo secrets) with parallel debug+release builds and an auto-generated commit changelog.
• Single universal APK (no per-ABI splits), R8 disabled on the fork release, and Gradle build-cache stabilization for faster, more predictable CI.
• Non-debuggable benchmark variant for performance work — nix run .#benchmark builds wtf.pipepiped.benchmark, which installs alongside debug and release. It exists because ART refuses to AOT-compile a debuggable package: on the debug build cmd package compile -m speed reports success and silently leaves the compiler filter at verify, so every benchmark number is interpreted+JIT. The variant is added by an additive -PforkBenchmark block and a benchmark-only source-set manifest, leaving upstream's build and manifest untouched.
• Automated performance rig — nix run .#emulator boots a pinned, headless x86_64 API-36 emulator (KVM, swiftshader, animations off, background dexopt and doze disabled) that is reproducible enough to A/B against, and tools/perf/ holds the measurement harness. The emulator is a separate Nix SDK composition, so nix run .#build is byte-for-byte unaffected. See docs/perf-automation-plan.md.

Project layout

• Fork-only submodules: the app (PipePipeClient) tracks this fork's patch branch; the extractor (PipePipeExtractor) stays pinned to upstream. Only what we change is forked.
• Currently tracking upstream v5.3.1. Keeping current is a documented procedure -- see docs/upstream-sync-runbook.md.

Building & installing (PipePipeD fork)

This fork builds via a reproducible Nix flake (Android SDK 37 + Temurin JDK 25, pinned). Clone recursively, check out patch, and run the commands below from the meta-repo root with submodules checked out (git submodule update --init PipePipeClient PipePipeExtractor):

Command	What it does
nix run .#build	Build the signed release universal APK (PipePipeD identity). Signs when the KEY_PATH / KEY_STORE_PASSWORD / KEY_ALIAS / KEY_PASSWORD environment variables are all set; otherwise emits an unsigned release.
nix run .#debug	Build a debug-key-signed APK for fast local iteration.
nix run .#install	Install the already-built APK(s) onto a connected ADB device.
nix develop	Drop into a dev shell with the toolchain on PATH.

APKs land in PipePipeClient/app/build/outputs/apk/{release,debug}/.

nix run .#install does not build — run .#build and/or .#debug first. It installs the newest APK from each of the release and debug output dirs (whichever variant(s) are present) via adb install -r (reinstall, keeps app data). With multiple devices connected, pick one with ANDROID_SERIAL=<serial> (adb devices lists them). Extra flags are forwarded to adb install, e.g. nix run .#install -- -g (grant runtime permissions) or nix run .#install -- -d (allow a version downgrade).

A fresh clone:

git clone --recursive git@github.com:HritwikSinghal/PipePipe.git
cd PipePipe && git checkout patch && git submodule update --init
nix run .#build          # first run ~10-40 min (downloads the toolchain)

---

---

PipePipe (upstream)

NewPipe, reimagined: faster, more stable, and packed with more features.

---

Beyond NewPipe

YouTube Enhancements

• Integrate SponsorBlock for skipping sponsored segments (YouTube & BiliBili)
• Restore YouTube dislikes with ReturnYouTubeDislike
• Show original titles on YouTube (non-localized)
• Log in to access restricted or premium content

Media Features

• Display live chats in danmaku-style overlays
• Support AV1 and VP9 codecs for efficient, high-quality playback
• Enable music player mode with background playback

Filtering

• Apply advanced search filters for better discovery
• Filter out unwanted items by keywords or channels
• Block shorts and paid videos for a cleaner feed

Playback Controls

• Use swipe-to-seek and fullscreen gestures for intuitive navigation
• Long-press to speed up playback
• Set a sleep timer for bedtime listening

Enhanced Playlists

• Download full playlists at once
• Search and sort within local playlists and histories

... and many more improvements!

Screenshots

About this fork

Due to differences in development philosophy, I forked NewPipe in early 2022 and began independent development based on it.

This means that PipePipe neither receives updates from NewPipe nor pushes updates to NewPipe. They have become two separate projects. Issues that occur in NewPipe don't necessarily happen in PipePipe, and changes made in NewPipe may not be adopted by PipePipe. In contrast, forks like Tubular track the latest version of NewPipe and develop based on it.

Making a hard fork allows us to effectively address issues with quick fixes and maintain frequent feature updates.

About sign in

PipePipe will ONLY use the login cookie for the specified scenarios you set. You can configure it in "Cookie Functions."

For YouTube, the cookie will only be used when retrieving playback streams.

Contribute

Issues and PRs are welcomed. Please note that I will NOT accept service requests.

Anyone interested in creating their own service is encouraged to fork this repository.

Donation

If you find PipePipe useful, please consider becoming a supporter on Ko-Fi. Your support is important to me and helps me add more exciting new features. Every bit counts!

Liberapay: https://liberapay.com/PipePipe

Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/pipepipe

Community

PipePipe Wiki maintained by @Priveetee

Special Thanks

Priveetee for researching SABR and implementing support for it.

AioiLight for providing some code of NicoNico service.