Vanced: Popular YouTube app is being retired
If you use YouTube on your Android smartphone, you probably want a number of features that are otherwise only available for money. Picture-in-Picture or continuing the video when the smartphone is locked is not available for most users in the official app.
Community projects such as YouTube Vanced and NewPipe equip the YouTube app on your smartphone with just such practical additional features. Actually, such features are otherwise available for paying premium customers.
But there’s a catch: The hugely popular “YouTube Vanced” has now been discontinued by the makers and will probably not work for much longer.
The end of YouTube Vanced comes as a surprise to many. Since the creators had to change the logo for legal reasons, the assumption is that Google went one step further and demanded that the project be stopped.
The founders wrote on Twitter: “Vanced has been discontinued. In the coming days, the download links will disappear from the website. We know you don’t like to hear this, but unfortunately we had to. Thanks for your support in the last few years.”
However, there is one downside: If you still have the app installed, you can probably use it for another year or two – after that, the functions will gradually become outdated and incompatible.
YouTube Vanced: How it works
YouTube Vanced consists of several parts, so the easiest way to install it is through the dedicated manager that you get with our YouTube Vanced APK download. This is how you get the original YouTube app, equipped with many additional functions.
During installation you can choose your preferred language and design. On smartphones with an OLED display, we recommend the version with real dark mode, which is easy on the battery and eyes. Thanks to background playback or picture-in-picture mode, you can continue to listen to or watch videos when you switch to another app. The audio playback even works on the locked screen.
Unfortunately, YouTube Vanced does not allow free downloads. However, with a YouTube Premium subscription, you can listen to videos and songs anywhere and support your favorite artists. However, to make private copies, you can resort to SnapTube or TubeMate, which can extract media files from YouTube.
With NewPipe, the download function for videos is directly integrated. In contrast to YouTube Vanced, the app is a more data protection-friendly alternative to the classic YouTube app instead of an extended version and thus does not require many permissions, is just 8 MB in size and impresses with its chic design and ease of use. In addition, NewPipe promises more privacy than the official YouTube app, since the alternative does not require Google Play services.
A block function for advertising is directly integrated into NewPipe and unfortunately cannot be switched off in order to support the creators of the videos. The video player itself is customizable and also offers some handy features. This allows you to adjust the speed of videos and choose whether a video should fill the screen or be displayed with black bars. In order to avoid high data consumption in mobile communications, a maximum quality level can be set. Alternatively, you can simply download the videos in various formats at home for later use. If you wish, you can only save the audio track.
Note: With an ad blocker you take websites like CHIP.de the most important source of income. For example, we finance our editorial team, the CHIP test center and our download server through advertising. Thanks to advertising, our offer always remains free of charge for you. For regular use of YouTube, we therefore recommend the official YouTube app, which you can use to support the creators of the videos.
