Changelog

• Over 2x faster performance when finding new videos from channels you follow in Channels Inbox!
• Fixed an issue where the Delete Videos Above would be disabled after saving a video for later using the double tap or swipe gesture.

This update: Fixed an issue where the app could crash when launched by users with numerous tags and tag folders.

Previously: Play 2.1.6 brings a host of user-requested enhancements and new features across the app:

• You can now customize the sorting order of your Channels Inbox.
• Added the ability to share the video directly from Channels Inbox.
• New button for adding a tag to a video saved for later when swiping in Channels Inbox.
• Tag and Smart Search folders can now be edited and deleted from the sidebar.
• Tag folders now display the item count.
• The video list now indicates which videos have a star rating or notes.
• Included buttons to help with Markdown formatting while editing a note.
• The 'Find Video' shortcut action now supports filtering by URL.
• Resolved a problem where the 'Manage Tags' screen would unexpectedly close while modifying video tags.
• Resolved a problem where the 'New by Creator' section would lost the selected item when changing the count of videos to watch.

Play 2.1.6 brings a host of user-requested enhancements and new features across the app:

• You can now customize the sorting order of your Channels Inbox.
• Added the ability to share the video directly from Channels Inbox.
• New button for adding a tag to a video saved for later when swiping in Channels Inbox.
• Tag and Smart Search folders can now be edited and deleted from the sidebar.
• Tag folders now display the item count.
• The video list now indicates which videos have a star rating or notes.
• Included buttons to help with Markdown formatting while editing a note.
• The 'Find Video' shortcut action now supports filtering by URL.
• Resolved a problem where the 'Manage Tags' screen would unexpectedly close while modifying video tags.
• Resolved a problem where the 'New by Creator' section would lost the selected item when changing the count of videos to watch.

• The list of supported streaming services has been significantly expanded. If Play couldn't fetch metadata for a video you tried to add before, there's a good chance it can now handle it.
• Play now also supports a wide range of content types, including articles, posts, and so on. This opens up various possibilities, such as saving links to movie reviews, social network posts with an embedded video, Instagram Reels, and so on.
• New context menu action available in Channels Inbox to 'Delete Videos Above'.

The video player now expands to fit the available space, ideal for a more immersive experience on iPad!

• You can now choose between Thumbnail and Color & Icon for the Tag, Smart Search, and Creator sections on the Start Screen. Go to Settings → Start Screen to configure.
• Improved the UI for managing Tag and Smart Search folders in Settings.
• Settings now shows a live preview of the selected layout.
• Improved animations throughout the app.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Watched list to not be sorted in reverse chronological order.

• Shared videos now include the Start At attribute in the URL.
• Added a shortcut action to recover recently removed videos from your Channels Inbox.
• Fixed an issue when trying to add items from Disney+.
• Fixed an issue that could cause performance issues when importing channels from Google Takeout.

• Import your YouTube channels using Google Takeout.
• Select and manipulate multiple videos at once in the Channels Inbox.
• The Start Screen now shows thumbnails for each Tag, Smart Search, and Creator.
• You can now view the number of videos on each Smart Search.
• Watch a random new item when pressing and holding a Tag or Smart Search.
• Fixed an issue where Smart Searches, when filtering by durations shorter than a specified amount, failed to save the selected comparison condition.

This update introduces the ability to follow YouTube playlists, pin Tags and Smart Searches in the start screen, lots of Smart Search improvements, and more:

• Follow YouTube playlists: you can now follow a specific playlist to get new videos as they are published.
• Pin up to two Tags or Smart Searches at the top of the start screen for quick access.
• Smart Search now supports filtering by video duration, description, and URL.
• Smart Search now supports filtering videos that do not include a specific tag.
• Smart Search now supports customizing the criteria between 'Contains' and 'Doesn’t Contains' when filtering by video title, channel, description, URL, or notes.
• Drag and drop a tag into a video to assign while in grid view.
• New 'Watch in App' button when pressing and holding a video throughout the app.
• The 'Actions' section now shows a button to quickly access 'Manage Videos'.
• New 'Set Start At Position' shortcut to save the current playback position for the video that’s currently playing, or for a specific video by ID.
• Fix: dragging a video to a tag no longer changes its added time and status.

Feedback is welcome! Please feel free to share any suggestions for features or ideas on how I can enhance your experience with Play.

Fixed an issue that could prevent the most recent videos from channels from appearing in the Inbox.

This version brings customizable gestures in Channels, improvements in Tag Folders and Auto-Tagging, support for watching in the DuckDuckGo browser, and fullscreen on iPad with Stage Manager:

• Customize swipe gestures in the Channels Inbox list. Go to Channels → More → Swipe Actions... to customize.
• Tags now show their associated folder names across the app.
• Quickly create or update an Auto-Tagging rule for a specific channel. Press and hold a tag in the Manage Tags view to use.
• Support for watching videos in the DuckDuckGo browser. Configure in Settings → General → Watch With.
• Fixed an issue that caused the iPad app to don’t play videos in fullscreen when Stage Manager was active.

• Added the ability to watch new videos from your channels inline, without having to first save them for later.
• The Get Videos shortcut action now supports filtering by multiple tags.
• List and Dense List layouts can now show the complete video title. Configure in Settings → Video List.
• Fixed a crash when trying to set the Start At attribute on videos that have a 0:00 length.

Channels
• Interactive widget for tracking newly released videos from channels you follow.
• Added an option to show the full video title in the Channels Inbox.
• You can now quickly follow a channel from the video details screen.

Additional Improvements
• Added Date Watched as a possible attribute for filtering and sorting videos in the Find Video shortcut action.
• Rows in the New by Channel section now support the Play All New on YouTube action.

Bug Fixes
• When the Mark as Watched parameter is enabled, selecting Play All New on YouTube will now accurately play the selected tag and smart search.
• The Channels Inbox status bar now converts the elapsed time into hours if it has been more than 60 minutes since the last update.

• Follow channels from your existing videos in Manage Channels → Import From URL → Add Existing Channels.
• You can now merge two different Tags. Go to Settings → Tags, long press one and select Merge...
• Configure a custom Piped/Invidious instance to watch videos.
• New action to delete YouTube channels from the Shortcuts app.
• Keep up with all the latest updates with the new What’s New in Play document, available in Settings → What’s New.
• Bug Fix: Resolved an issue where deleted videos could reappear in the Channels Inbox.

This update improves the in-app player experience:
- AirPlay support.
- Picture in Picture (PiP) support on the iPhone.
- Fullscreen support on the iPad.
- Long press the Start At button to set it as the currently running time.

It also adds the ability to create an Auto-Tag rule based on the video description.

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Play 2.0 brings the ability to follow YouTube channels and get new videos as they're released. You can save the ones you want to watch, and delete the rest. It integrates harmoniously with the existing feature set, allowing you to have a complete YouTube experience within the app - get new videos, save, organize, and watch without algorithms!

It also adds the ability to create folders for Tags and Smart Searches, giving you more ways to catalog and organize your videos.

These features are part of Play Premium, a subscription designed for features that extend Play's capabilities beyond saving videos for later. It brings a more sustainable business model to the app and allows me to invest in more advanced features, ensuring the app's long-term development.

Play 2.0 brings the ability to follow YouTube channels and get new videos as they're released. You can save the ones you want to watch, and delete the rest. It integrates harmoniously with the existing feature set, allowing you to have a complete YouTube experience within the app - get new videos, save, organize, and watch without ads and algorithms!

It also adds the ability to create folders for Tags and Smart Searches, giving you more ways to catalog and organize your videos.

These features are part of Play Premium, a subscription designed for features that extend Play's capabilities beyond saving videos for later. It brings a more sustainable business model to the app and allows me to invest in more advanced features, ensuring the app's long-term development.

Play 2.0 also brings the following bug fixes and improvements:

- Added a button to open the main app when adding a video from the Share Sheet.
- The large widget now shows 12 videos when configured with the ‘Minimal UI’ option.
- The in-app player now starts the video according to the ‘Start At’ attribute.

Update 2.0.1 brings:

• Added double tap gesture to add a video from Inbox to watch later.
• The Actions section in the start screen now features a button to open a random new video.
• Playing all new videos now gives you the option to watch without marking them as watched when the ‘Mark as Watched’ parameter is active.
• Fix: Importing videos from a playlist no longer duplicates existing videos.

Fixed a bug that could cause video metadata to be missing when importing links with a specific URL format.

This update brings major improvements to widgets, the ability to customize the start screen and sidebar, an option to group videos by channel, a denser grid layout, and more:

• Widgets have been reorganized to offer unified options for the Lock Screen and Home Screen. There are now two types of widgets: List and Add Video. I also added more sizes, specially the smaller ones, allowing for more flexible widget setups. Large and extra-large interactive widgets now have two new background colors: Black and System, which follows the system’s defaults for light and dark mode. They also offer a ‘Minimal UI’ option that hides every UI element.

• Customizable Start Screen and Sidebar: You can now customize which sections are visible in the start screen/sidebar. Show or hide tags, smart search, a new list of actions for quickly adding videos, and even a new section that automatically groups videos by channel. Go to Settings → Start Screen to configure.

• Play can now optionally group videos by channel, allowing you to easily catch up on new videos from a particular creator. Channels with new videos to watch will be shown in the start screen/sidebar and are sorted by the count of new videos and then by name. Go to Settings → Sidebar → View Channels to activate.

• New ‘Dense Grid’ layout option that shows more videos per page. If you’re on the iPad, try pairing it with a two-column layout for a more focused video list. Go to Settings → Video List to configure.

• Smart Search now supports filtering by multiples channels when using a comma to separate the channel name (e.g., Christopher Lawley,Marques Brownlee,iJustine).

• The ‘Add to Play’ share sheet action now supports adding videos manually. When adding video from an app that Play can’t get the metadata automatically, the window will allow you to manually type the missing metadata.

• The video’s star rating is now present in the response of the ‘Find Video’ shortcut action, and also available as an attribute for filtering.

Play 1.4.2 brings new features for iOS and iPadOS 17 including interactive widgets, support for StandBy mode on the iPhone, support for Lock Screen widgets on the iPad, and more. It also adds the ability to watch YouTube videos within the app, for a more seamless experience:

New on iOS and iPadOS 17
• Interactive Widgets: Edit a large or extra-large widget to customize and configure interactive Tags and Smart Searches.
• Support for the iPhone’s new StandBy mode.
• Support for Lock Screen widgets on the iPad.
• Play now shows tips about features you may not know about.

Improvements and bug fixes
• Play YouTube Videos Inline: You can now watch YouTube videos within the app for a more seamless experience.
• The Watched section now always sorts videos by the date watched attribute.
• New ‘Add Video Manually’ shortcut action allows you to add videos manually by filling in all the required metadata.
• Added the ability to open Play without playing a random video when tapping the View a Random Video Lock Screen widget.
• Improved dark mode support and legibility for tag colors.
• Play now remembers the state of the Tags list (shown/collapsed).
• Fixed an issue that caused some URLs not to be recognized when adding videos manually.

• Introducing a new widget design that optimizes the content to the available space and widget's size.
• New option to use a two-column layout on the iPad. Configure in Settings → Video List.
• Play now remembers and shows the previously viewed section upon launching the app on the iPad.
• Added support for links from youtube-nocookie.com
• Added the ability to edit the thumbnail URL of videos added manually.
• Fixed an issue where tapping the ‘Done’ button could discard all changes when editing notes in a video.

Play now supports adding videos from any platform! For supported platforms, Play will automatically fetch metadata and save the video. And for other platforms, you can manually fill in all the required fields.

• Support for adding entire YouTube playlists as a single item rather than importing each video individually.
• Support for Twitch and Hulu.
• The Play All feature now marks videos as watched, according to the 'Mark as Watched' user preference.
• Enhanced the process for importing videos from playlists.
• Support for Apple Music videos in the format ‘https://music.apple.com/us/post/…’.
• Support for YouTube videos in the format ‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=...&fbclid=...&v=...’.

Introducing Play All: watch your new YouTube videos with a single tap! Play All generates a playlist on YouTube, allowing for automatic, continuous playback.

To use Play All, look for the play button on the toolbar of your list of new videos. You can also use it on specific Tags and Smart Search by long pressing them.

• Added support for videos from Apple Developer, Disney+, TED, Khan Academy, O’Reilly Learning, and BBC.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the action extension to not completely close after tapping Done.

• Redesigned tips section when adding a new item.
• Rate items when adding from other apps in the Share Sheet extension.

• Support for the Apple TV app: movies, TV shows, and episodes.
• Support for Netflix: movies and TV shows.
• Support for movies from Letterboxd.
• Support for videos from your LinkedIn Learning courses.
• Category suggestions in the search bar are now optional and disabled by default (configure in Settings → Video List).
• Added “Source” as a new attribute in Auto-Tagging.

View the number of new videos in the app’s icon badge, open a random video with a new Lock Screen and Home Screen widget, add live videos from YouTube, and more:

Show Badge Count
• Show the number of new videos on Play’s icon.
• Enable it in Settings → General → Show Badge Count.

Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets
• New widget to open a new random video with a single tap.

Support for additional services
• Added support for Live videos from YouTube.
• Added support for Odysee.

General improvements
• The Find Video shortcut action now accepts filtering by Description and Notes.
• Improved colors in dark mode.

• Search enhancements: find videos more easily by combining category suggestions and multiple keywords.
• On the iPad, video description and notes are now visible in a popover component.
• Added a shortcut to add/remove tags by long pressing the Tags button in the video details view.
• Added a “Done” button to dismiss the keyboard on text fields.
• Adding Auto-Tagging conditions now uses a smaller, medium-height modal view.

Improved accessibility support with VoiceOver and Voice Control.

• Home Screen widgets can now be configured with a Smart Search.
• Videos marked as watched will show a new “Date Watched” attribute.
• Added the ability to sort videos by the new “Date Watched” attribute.
• The “Tag” attribute can now be used as an Auto-Tagging condition.
• It is now possible to configure an Auto-Tagging condition to check if the title or channel does not contain text.
• Added “Full Title” as a metadata option for the detail view.

• Shake to Watch: watch a new random video by shaking the device.
• The Add Video shortcut action now supports Twitter videos.
• Added the ability to collapse the list of tags in the Start Screen.
• You can now search tags when adding videos from the Share Sheet.

This update introduces support for Focus Filter, Predicate Filtering in Shortcuts, Twitter and Nebula videos, and more:

New features:
• Support for Twitter and Nebula videos.
• Focus Filter: Configure a Focus mode to limit the videos and tags shown in Play.
• Predicate Filtering: Use the new Find Video action in Shortcuts to search videos using complex filters, predicates, and sort options.
• New shortcut action to change the app's settings.

Bug fixes:
• Fixed a bug that could cause the Add to Play action not to appear in the Share Sheet when sharing Apple Music videos.
• Fixed a bug that caused the duration to be formatted incorrectly when the video is less than 10 seconds long.

Play 1.2.7 brings support for music videos from Apple Music, the ability to view notes in the List layout, bug fixes, and more:

• Added support for music videos from Apple Music.
• View a preview of the video's notes in the List layout. Go to Settings → User Interface → List to configure.
• Added Source, ID, and URL as optional metadata in the details screen.
• Increased the size of the success dialog when adding videos from the Share Sheet on the iPad.
• Fixed a bug that could cause videos to have a wrong URL when watching videos with Safari.
• Fixed the layout of the extra-large widget on devices that use the More Space in Display Zoom options.

• Dense List layout. See twice as many items as before!
• Choose which metadata you want to see in the details screen. Long-press a metadata and tap Hide, or go to Settings → User Interface → Video Metadata to configure.
• Customize actions visible in the details screen. Long-press an action and tap Hide, or go to Settings → User Interface → Actions to configure.
• Redesigned details screen with actions always visible in the navigation bar and tags that are easier to manage.
• Ability to sort by star rating.
• Support for a URL Scheme to open an item: play://open?id=videoID

• Stability improvements when adding videos.
• Added the possibility to automatically close the Share Sheet after adding.
• Added the possibility to hide Tags tips from the Start Screen.
• Added support for Yattee and Piped. Go to Settings > General > Watch With to configure.

Play 1.2.4 brings new Lock Screen widgets for you to quickly see and access your saved videos.

Play 1.2.3 introduces Smart Search and allows you to customize tag colors. It also changes the way new/watched videos are displayed, brings improvements to Shortcuts, and more:

• Introducing Smart Search: automatically filter videos based on a set of rules.
• Added the ability to customize the tag color.
• The Get Videos shortcut now accepts the Video ID as a parameter.
• The Add Video shortcut now also works with YouTube playlists.
• Changed the way the app indicates a video is new/watched. New videos will now have a "NEW" indicator, and Play will no longer apply a fade effect to watched videos.
• Fixed a bug that caused the video to not open from the widgets when using the Delete Watched setting.

• You can now import videos from a YouTube playlist. Press and hold the + button and choose Import From Playlist.
• Added support for Vimeo.
• Added support for Invidious and Piped.
• Fixed the widget's background color when the Hide Title Bar option is enabled.
• Minor UI improvements.

• Added support for Shorts.
• The Add Video shortcut action now has the Date Added and Notes optional fields.
• You can now write Notes when adding videos from the share sheet.
• Play now properly format the duration of videos shorter than one minute.

• Added the video description to the details. You can also search videos by the description.
• Improved the video details view by bringing the most frequently used controls to the top.
• Improved the UI to view and edit notes.
• Added troubleshooting instructions for issues with iCloud Sync.
• Added a parameter to show/hide the title bar in widgets.

• Rate videos with starts.
• User Interface options are now available in the list of saved items.
• The Get Video shortcut response now contains the list of video tags.
• Added a new screen to check the iCloud sync status. Available in Settings > General > iCloud Status
• The Manage Videos screen now allows editing watched videos.
• Added the ability to remove tags in the Manage Videos screen.
• Fixed a bug that ignored filtered videos when selecting all in the Batch Edit screen.

This update brings the ability to save timestamps, apply Auto-Tagging retroactively, new URL Schemes to add videos, support for Firefox and Brave, and more:

• You can now add a specific timestamp to control from where the video should start playing.
• Added the ability to apply Auto-Tagging retroactively to existing videos. Tap and hold an Auto-Tagging item and choose "Apply".
• Created two new URL Schemes:
• Launch Play: play://
• Add Video: play://add?url={video url}
• Added a menu to choose where to watch a video when pressing and holding the Watch With button (YouTube App, Safari, Brave, Firefox, or Invidious).
• Added support for Firefox and Brave. Go to Settings > General > Watch With to configure.
• The Manage Videos screen now allows you to select and edit videos without having to tap the Edit button first.
• Added the ability to create a new tag from the Manage Tags screen.
• Added the ability to edit a Tag when tapping and holding them on the Start Screen/Sidebar.
• Added an Edit button to make it easier to edit notes inside videos.
• The Send Feedback via Email action now uses the user's default mail app.

• Added a new Grid layout option. Go to Settings > User Interface to configure.
• Shows the total running time of all new videos in each group.
• Added a search bar in the Manage Videos screen.

Play 1.1.5 brings an easier way to manage a video's tags, Markdown support for Notes, drag and drop improvements, and new Shortcuts actions and attributes.

Tags
• Added a new modal view to manage a video's tags. Available in the context menu when touching and holding a video.
• Added the ability to drag and drop videos into a tag. You can use this to assign a tag to the video.
• Added the option to count played albums and songs in the total number of videos of each tag. Go to Settings > User Interface to configure.

UI
• The Notes field now formats Markdown text. It accepts **bold**, *italic*, ~~strikethrough~~, `monospaced` and [link](https://apple.com) text.

Shortcuts
• The Get Videos shortcut now shows the number of videos found when run.
• The Add Video shortcut now accepts multiple tags.
• Created a new Get Tags shortcut to get all tags in the app.

Drag and Drop
• Added the ability to drag videos out of the app. You can use this to share a video by dragging and dropping it into another app.
• Increased the drop area when dragging and dropping an album or song.
• Improved the progress indicator when adding a dropped video.

UI
• Play now always shows the search bar by default. Go to Settings > User Interface to configure this behavior.
• Added the ability to customize the swipe actions. Go to Settings > User Interface to customize.

Widgets
• Added two new color options: Black and Pure Black.

Tags
• Added the ability to create new tags when creating a new Auto-Tag.

Shortcuts
• Added the Notes, Artwork URL, and Artwork URL (Maximum Resolution) attributes to the Get Video action response.
• Added a new action to delete videos by ID.

Add Videos
• Play now accepts YouTube links in the format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=...
• Added links in the Add Video view that explain how to use drag and drop and the share sheet.

Bug fixes
• Play now ignores the watched status filter when accessing the Watched category.

This update introduces an entirely new UI on iPhone and iPad! You can now filter by tags with a single tap. In addition, new categories make it easier to access new, played, and untagged videos.

Play 1.1.2 introduces Auto-Tagging and adds UI refinements and improvements throughout the app.

Auto-Tagging
• Use Auto-Tagging to automatically tag videos when adding them, according to user-defined rules. You can create rules based on the video Title, Channel, and Duration. Go to Settings > Auto-Tagging to configure.

Metadata
• Added the ability to edit the video Published Date and Added Date.

UI
• Refined system icons throughout the app.
• Refined the UI of the video details screen.
• Refined the UI of the video list item in both List and Grid view.
• Added an explanation label in the Tags Settings screen.

Play 1.1.0 is the Tags update! It adds the following improvements to tag-related operations:

• Added the ability to create new tags from the Add Video screen.
• Added a new button to manage tags from the navigation bar of the video details screen.
• Improved how tags are sorted throughout the app by using natural sorting.

• Added the ability to search videos by notes.
• Fixes a bug that caused the app to differentiate between lowercased and uppercased channel titles when sorting by channel.

This update prevents duplicate videos from being added. Instead, when adding a video that already exists, Play will update its added date, and status to New.

Announcement
• Play is now available on the Apple TV!

What's New
• Added the ability to write notes in the video.
• Added editing metadata capabilities, allowing users to change the title, channel name, and notes.

These new features allow users to use Play to save videos for later and to catalog videos for reference.

• This update adds the much-anticipated option to sort videos by duration!
• It also shows the video duration in the large and extra-large widgets.

This update brings the second batch of new features that users suggested via feedback:

Widget
• Added a widget configuration to show video title. It works on large and extra-large widgets.

Filter
• Added option to filter videos with no tags.

Sharing
• Added the ability to share the video using the Share Sheet. It is available from the detail screen and the video's context menu.

Tap to Play
• Added a button in the video's context menu to open details when using the Tap to Play option.

Bug fixes
• Fixes a bug that could cause the Share Sheet action extension not to appear when sharing from apps such as Firefox or Reeder.

This update introduces many improvements and new features that users suggested via feedback, such as:

Watch Videos
• Added an option to choose where to watch. You can choose between the YouTube App, Safari, or Invidious. Go to Settings > General > Watch With to configure.
• Added an option to immediately play the video when tapped, rather than opening details. Go to Settings > UI > Tap to Play to configure.

Sorting
• Improves the sorting by Title by comparing strings with numbers according to their numerical value.

Manage Videos
• Added option to create a new tag inside the "Tags..." menu.

Tags
• Tags will be automatically assigned to the selected videos when creating a new tag.

Widget
• Added an option to sort the videos randomly.

- This update fixes an issue that caused some videos to be added without metadata info, such as title and channel name.
- Videos affected by this bug will be automatically fixed upon opening the app.

Thanks for downloading Play, and for all the feedback and feature suggestions! New features and improvements will be released soon, starting with version 1.0.2.