FreeTube v0.24.0-beta

v0.24.0-betaPre-releaseDesktop

v0.24.0 Beta

Added 13
  • Implement SABR playback support via the local API, restoring audio track selection in the player
  • Add support for Wayland out of the box in Electron v38.2.0 and newer
  • Add clickable playlist progress bar
  • Add Everforest color themes
  • Add support for channel's Courses tab
  • Add playlist duration to playlist view
Changed 5
  • Update the player to a newer version of Shaka Player with a modernization of the UI, now cleaner and closely aligned with YouTube's look and feel
  • Update FreeTube's Trending page to source data from the trending sections of the Gaming, Sports, and Podcasts channels following YouTube's removal of its Trending page
  • Update search filters to match YouTube's updated search filter changes
  • Update from Electron v34 to Electron v41
  • Require macOS 12 (Monterey) or later, as macOS 11 is no longer supported
Removed 2
  • Remove the Restart window keyboard shortcut due to instability and frequent issues
  • Remove the built-in download feature, which became completely unusable following the introduction of SABR
Summary

This release of FreeTube represents an incredible amount of hard work and persistence from the project and its contributors. It brings major improvements across playback, performance, and platform support, with the most significant changes detailed in the FreeTube, YouTube, and Electron sections below.

We’d like to extend a special thank you to @LuanRT, maintainer of YouTube.js and @absidue, for repeatedly helping us resolve that various issues that have impacted playback over time. Your expertise has been invaluable in keeping FreeTube functional through YouTube’s ongoing changes.

A special thank you as well to @PikachuEXE and @absidue for their work on implementing SABR support, a challenging but essential step in adapting FreeTube to YouTube’s evolving streaming methods.

We also want to give a big thank you to the Shaka Player team (@avelad, @joeyparrish, @matvp91, @tykus160, @TAhub, @mariocynicys) for their responsiveness and collaboration. They’ve been quick to fix bugs we’ve reported and their willingness to implement requested functionality have been invaluable to FreeTube.

Lastly, we would like to thank all the translators that make FreeTube more accessible to all of our users!

FreeTube
  • Implemented SABR playback support via the local API, restoring audio track selection in the player. Watch pages now load faster, but may show timers for pre-roll ads and SABR backoff. The displayed timer values are provided by YouTube and we have no control over them. If playback fails, it will automatically retry or reload. For more details on SABR, see https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/issues/7119#issuecomment-2837840256.
  • Updated the player to a newer version of Shaka Player with a modernization of the UI. The interface is now cleaner and closely aligned with YouTube’s look and feel.
  • Removed the Restart window keyboard shortcut. It is known to be unstable and frequently causes allot of issues when used, despite prior guidance to avoid it. As an alternative, use the keyboard shortcuts for navigating back and forward or reopen the video to achieve the same result.
  • The built-in download feature has been removed. This functionality was already partially broken and became completely unusable following the introduction of SABR. In its existing state, it lacked many features users typically expect from a YouTube downloader, and restoring it would have required a significant rewrite just to bring it back to a minimal, maintenance-level condition. Given the scope of work required and the availability of more robust, dedicated tools such as yt-dlp and various online download services, we determined that removing the built-in downloader was the most practical decision.
YouTube
Electron

Updating from Electron v34 to Electron v41 introduces the following notable changes:

  • macOS 11 is no longer supported, as Electron v38.0.0 does not support this OS version. macOS 12 (Monterey) or later is required to run FreeTube going forward.
  • Wayland is supported out of the box in Electron v38.2.0 and newer (if you were previously launching your Electron apps with very long commands like CONFUSING_OZONE_VARIABLE --ozone-platform=wayland, you no longer need to do that).
Known issues
Features
Fixes
Changes
Miscellaneous
  • Dependencies updated to their latest versions on March 27, 2026
  • Translations updated via Weblate on March 31, 2026
  • Dozens of PRs with assorted code cleanups by @absidue @PikachuEXE @efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc
New Contributors

Full Changelog: https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/compare/v0.23.15-beta...v0.24.0-beta

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