YTLite

A lightweight, privacy-focused YouTube client for iOS 12+ built entirely with UIKit. No ads, no tracking, no dependencies.

Features

• Video Playback — up to 1080p 60fps quality
• Background Audio — Continue listening with the screen off
• Picture-in-Picture — Watch while using other apps
• SponsorBlock — Skip sponsored segments automatically
• Return YouTube Dislike — See dislike counts again
• Subtitles — Full subtitle/caption support with VTT parsing
• Search & Browse — Home feed, trending, channel pages, playlists
• Subscriptions — Follow channels with a local subscription feed
• Watch History — Track what you've watched with progress indicators
• Autoplay — Automatically play the next related video
• Dark/Light Theme — Manual theme switching via ThemeManager
• Download — Save videos for offline viewing (planned)

Requirements

• iOS 12.0+
• Xcode 16+
• No external dependencies (no CocoaPods, no SPM packages)

Building

git clone https://github.com/verback2308/YTLite.git
cd YTLite
open YTLite.xcodeproj

Select the YTVLite scheme, choose your device or simulator, and build (⌘B).

IPA for sideloading

./make_ipa.sh

Produces a self-signed IPA installable via AltStore, TrollStore, or Filza (jailbroken).

Architecture

YTLite/
├── API/              YouTube Innertube API client
├── Auth/             OAuth device-code flow
├── Common/           Shared UI components & utilities
├── Config/           URLs, UserDefaults keys, constants
├── Extensions/       Swift extensions
├── Features/
│   ├── Channel/      Channel page with tabs
│   ├── Home/         Home feed
│   ├── Library/      Playlists & saved videos
│   ├── Player/       Video player & watch page
│   ├── Profile/      User profile
│   ├── Search/       Search with suggestions
│   └── Subscriptions/ Subscription feed
└── Services/         Business logic & playback

Key Design Decisions

• Zero external dependencies — Networking via URLSession, images via custom ThumbnailImageView, playback via AVPlayer
• All UIKit, no SwiftUI — Programmatic layout, no storyboards
• iOS 12+ support — No SF Symbols, no SwiftUI, no Combine
• Manual JSON parsing — JSONSerialization + dictionary traversal for YouTube Innertube API responses
• Dependency injection — ServiceContainer provides services; view controllers receive dependencies via initializers

Playback Pipeline

The app fetches video streams via YouTube's Innertube API. Two strategies are used in practice:

1. Generated HLS — Adaptive formats (360p–1080p) are converted from DASH SIDX byte ranges into an HLS playlist for native AVPlayer. This is the primary path with quality selection.
2. Progressive — Direct 360p MP4 URL as a fallback when YouTube restricts adaptive formats (e.g. during server-side A/B experiments).

If streams are unavailable from the primary client, an Onesie fallback requests them through YouTube's proprietary bootstrap API.

Authentication

OAuth device-code flow: the app requests a device code → user enters it at google.com/device → tokens are stored in Keychain. Anonymous browsing is supported.

Project Structure

Component	Purpose
InnertubeClient	YouTube API: browse, search, player, comments, subscriptions
PlaybackFacade	Orchestrates playback strategy selection and player setup
VideoPlayerView	Custom player UI with controls, gestures, PiP
WatchViewController	Watch page: player + metadata + comments + related
AppCache	Dual-layer cache (memory + disk) with TTL
SponsorBlockController	SponsorBlock API integration
ThemeManager	App-wide theming (dark/light)

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add my feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Please follow the existing code style. SwiftLint is configured and runs as a build phase.

Bug Reports

If you encounter a bug, you can export debug logs directly from the app:

Settings → Debug → Share Debug Log

This generates a log file you can attach to your GitHub issue. The log includes timestamped playback, API, and caching events that help diagnose problems.

Credits

• SponsorBlock — crowdsourced API for skipping sponsored segments
• Return YouTube Dislike — community-maintained dislike count data
• yt-dlp — invaluable reference for understanding YouTube's playback infrastructure

Legal

This project is for educational and personal use. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Google or YouTube. Use at your own risk.

License

MIT