FreeTube v0.21.0 Beta

Summary

FreeTube v0.21.0 is out, and with it, our fastest major release upgrade rollout in over two years. v0.19 came out after 10 months, v0.20 after 7 months, and v0.21 is here after just 3 months. With it, we have a myriad of features, user experience improvements, bug fixes, and performance improvements. 

Excluding dependency updates, Weblate translations, and nightly-only regression fixes, we have 110 (!) substantive merged PRs included in this release, and only 47 of them are linked to directly in this list. Click here to see our full changelog.

Features

• Grid view for user playlists by @kommunarr in #4949
• Sort option for user playlists by @kommunarr in #4921
• Prevent adding duplicate videos into a playlist by default by @PikachuEXE in #5044
• Add "Remove Duplicate Videos" button for user playlists by @PikachuEXE in #5191
• Use more generic icon for Quick bookmark feature by @MarmadileManteater in #4885
• Quick bookmark styling and behavioral improvements by @kommunarr in #5058
• Display Subtitles and 4k tags on videos in search results when applicable by @dkshxd in #5119
• Add Ctrl+F secondary search bar shortcut + trigger form submit on Enter binding by @kommunarr in #4970
• Show when Subscriptions / Trending / Most Popular were last updated by @kommunarr in #4380
• Allow filtering searches by features by @ChunkyProgrammer in #5125
• Play next/previous video after removing the current video from the playlist by @kommunarr in #5158
• Local API: Extract playlists on the auto-generated "Music" channel by @absidue in #5250
• Local API: Extract releases on auto-generated artist topic channels by @absidue in #5241
• Add Solarized Dark and Solarized Light color schemes by @DontBlameMe99 in #5066
• Add option in Subscription Settings for a confirmation popup before unsubscribing by @msagr in #4896
• Add settings section sorting option by @kommunarr in #5010
• Add more options to default playback rate menu by @msagr in #4880
• Add icons to dropdowns by @kommunarr in #5006
• Improved spacing on the about page by @MarkusGaugg in #5257
• Update About page to display correct Freetube logo based on currently set theme by @ducks in #5126
• Mark destructive actions (e.g., deleting actions) with distinctive theming by @kommunarr in #4374
• Improve user playlist video search UX by @kommunarr in #4929
• Improve create & edit playlist UX by @PikachuEXE in #5226
• Release notes formatting improvements from @absidue and @kommunarr

Fixes

• Fix broken DeArrow thumbnails by @ChunkyProgrammer in #5259
• Fix incorrect published dates in the channel search with the Invidious API by @absidue in #4912
• Fix hide/show channel in ft-list-video by @absidue in #5149
• Fix hide sharing actions also hiding hide/show channel by @absidue in #5110
• Fix Channel live tab showing as empty for some channels by @absidue in #4914
• Fix window title displaying null while loading a video or channel by @absidue in #4913
• Fix user playlist reverse button unsetting itself by @kommunarr in #4947
• Fix prompts closing on button click in certain instances by @MarmadileManteater in #5096
• Improve search filter styling & fix modal accessibility issues by @kommunarr in #3975
• Fix handling of emojis with ZWJ sequences in profile initials by @absidue in #5023
• Fix External Player button not working on the Watch page by @absidue in #5263
• Fix error when fetching deleted comment replies with the Local API by @PikachuEXE in #5255
• Fix mouse backward and forward buttons not updating the in-app navigation buttons by @absidue in #5242
• Fix incorrect Channel page sort values being displayed by @kommunarr in #5162
• Improve storyboard styling for tablet & mobile devices by @MarmadileManteater in #4933
• Improve accessibility of playlist icon buttons by @sossost in #4943

Changes

• Replace Comment Auto Load setting with all-encompassing Auto Load Next Page setting by @PikachuEXE in #4565
• Add back matching author names appearing in video playlist search results by @kommunarr in #4919
• Increase default scrollbar size and make it larger on hover by @kommunarr in #5172
• Show error message when search is over the YouTube search limit of 100 characters by @dkshxd in #4992
• Update Invidious instances list by @absidue in #5288
• Use clearer SVG assets over blurrier PNGs by @HighlanderCZ in #4898
• Only approve web API permission requests for permissions that FreeTube needs by @absidue in #5022
• Bump electron from 29.1.6 to 31.0.1
• Enormous amount of performance improvements and build size reductions from @absidue
• Assorted code quality improvements by @absidue and @ChunkyProgrammer
• Changes to the About page styling by @efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc

New Contributors

• @HighlanderCZ with #4898
• @msagr with #4880
• @sossost with #4943
• @dkshxd with #4992
• @DontBlameMe99 with #5066
• @MarkusGaugg with #5257
• @ducks with #5126

Full Changelog: v0.20.0-beta...v0.21.0-beta