Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
The YouTube app is pre-installed on the vast majority of Android phones shipping globally, giving users an easy way to watch content on the platform. But there are several alternatives to the official app as well.
In fact, Morphe is one alternative that popped up in recent weeks. This app modifies the official YouTube app to give users a variety of extra features. That got us wondering how many people prefer alternatives to the official app. We posed this question last week, and here’s how you answered it.
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Over 6,000 votes were cast in this survey, and it turns out that a massive 60.59% of respondents prefer using alternatives to the official YouTube app. Of course, it’s worth noting that this almost certainly doesn’t reflect Android users at large, as our news article and poll likely attracted a lot of attention from fans of alternatives in the first place.
Nevertheless, this is still a surprising result and suggests that alternatives are scratching an itch that the official YouTube app just can’t reach. Apps like Morphe and Revanced offer some YouTube Premium features for free, such as ad-free playback and background playback. These alternatives also offer smart features like SponsorBlock integration, the ability to disable Shorts, and improved dislike functionality.
User jxchamb revealed a simple reason why they used alternatives even though they paid for Premium: I’ve been a YouTube Red user since forever but I hate the YouTube app and that’s why I use 3rd party ones. Meanwhile, 23.39% of surveyed readers said they haven’t used alternatives to the YouTube app but would like to try them. Otherwise, 8.15% of respondents said they tried alternative apps but prefer the official YouTube mobile client. Finally, 7.86% said they haven’t tried these alternatives but were happy with the official app.
Reader Judah Richardson admitted to previously using alternatives, but revealed why they now pay for YouTube Premium: Former heavy Vanced and ReVanced user here. Eventually I gave up and got YouTube Premium as that enables ad-free watching on my TV, Xbox, etc. It’s pretty affordable if you pay annually with Google Play gift cards, which are frequently on sale. Meanwhile, reader Maurice Griffin outlined his concern with using alternative apps: This sounds cool but I’m wary of something like getting my Google account banned.. I guess I could use a burner though, and start my algorithm from scratch. Have any users of Revanced gotten banned? This is a valid concern, as the last thing you want is for anything to happen to your Google account. After all, the account is also tied to Gmail, Google One, Chrome, and a host of other essential services. So we can understand if people are worried about giving their account details to an alternative app (even if microG is used) or using these alternatives in the first place.
Nevertheless, I hope we see even more alternatives to the official YouTube app as they often incorporate features Google can’t or won’t add to their own app.
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