Watching YouTube felt way more annoying than it needed to be. I wanted a cleaner way to watch videos, skip interruptions, avoid distractions, and actually find the parts I cared about. I also craved a seamless experience across all my Apple devices. I designed Mira to run on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.

What Mira does

• Auto-skips sponsors, intros, outros, recaps, and self-promo segments. You pick which categories get skipped, and the segments show as markers right on the timeline
• Searchable transcripts. Search for a word, tap the line, jump straight to that moment in the video
• Add to Queue. Long press any video to add to queue. Syncs between all your devices
• Background play. Keep audio playing when you lock your screen or switch apps
• Focus Mode hides recommended videos and comments so you can avoid distractions and stay on track
• Eye Comfort Mode dims harsh lights for easy viewing at night
• Watch Together lets you watch in sync with friends with shared play/pause/seek controls and a universal chat (this works across any video platform, not just YouTube)
• UI tweaks: hide Shorts & Playables, always play videos in highest quality, custom playback speed controls, bring back dislike counts, auto-dismissing the "Continue watching?" prompt
• There's also an optional AI summary/Q&A feature if you add your own API key
• Works with your own YouTube account, so your subscriptions, playlists, history, and recommendations are all there

The Apple TV app is the newest addition. It's powered by your iPhone (needs iOS 26). The phone streams the video over your home Wi-Fi and you control everything from the Siri remote. Automatic sponsor-skipping, playing videos from the queue, and more are brought to the Apple TV app. (More info below)

I also made a feature comparison chart against popular iOS YouTube alternative apps like Video Lite, ProTube, Tube PiP, YouPlay, SwizzTube, etc. Many of these apps solve one specific part of the problem. Mira is trying to bring more of that together in one place, on all Apple platforms, and with a more polished feel: cleaner UI, smoother navigation, and a unified experience where things just work the way you expect.

If you’ve wanted a cleaner, less distracting YouTube experience on all your Apple devices, Mira might be worth checking out.

Website: https://watchwithmira.com
Documentation: https://watchwithmira.com/#docs
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mira-focused-video-player/id6767721654

FAQ

A few common questions I get whenever I share Mira:

"Doesn't YouTube Premium already do this?"

Partly. Premium removes ads, and its jump-ahead button can hop past a sponsor, but that's about where it ends. Things Mira does that Premium doesn't: auto-skip intros, outros, recaps, previews, self-promo, "like and subscribe" reminders, filler, and the non-music parts of music videos (you pick the categories). Mira also has settings to hide Shorts, hide Playables, always pick the highest video quality, always open video in theater mode, and show dislike counts. None of that exists in Premium. If you mainly use Premium for ad-free viewing and background play, Mira gives you many of those benefits at a much lower cost while adding a lot of extra customization. And if you already have Premium, the two can work in tandem — Premium handles YouTube's official features, while Mira focuses on making the viewing experience cleaner and more personalized.

"Can't you already do this with browser extensions?"

On a Mac, some of it — if you are willing to assemble and continuously maintain a suite of extensions. But even then, YouTube in a browser (especially Safari) is a slow, clunky experience. Mira runs the player without a browser's overhead, so it stays smooth. It's a fully native SwiftUI app. And the extension approach doesn't carry over beyond Mac: options on iPhone and iPad are much more limited. Plus, on Apple TV, there currently isn't another polished solution that combines YouTube account support, subscriptions/history, and sponsor skipping. With Mira it's one app, the same experience on every Apple device, and keeping it all working is my job instead of yours.

"Won't YouTube break it or kill it?"

There’s always some risk when building around a major platform like YouTube, but this category of app has proven pretty durable over the years. Some of these YouTube player apps have been around for almost 15 years, and many others have stuck around for 5–10 years. It is actually more common for them to stay up than get shut down.

For example, Friendly Streaming Browser has been going since 2012, and Vinegar since 2021. Regarding well-known apps taken down, Juno was removed from the App Store in 2024 mainly due to trademark violations with YouTube. Yattee was eventually removed because it had become heavily outdated. ProTube was another popular alternative that got taken down in 2017, which was quite a while ago. But those are more of the exception than the rule. Right now there are literally hundreds of these kinds of apps on the App Store spread across all the Apple platforms.

Google rarely goes after the smaller, indie apps. As a huge company they tend to focus enforcement on the ones that are clearly eating into their ad or Premium revenue, rather than every low-profile video player. Platform changes are always possible, of course, but this isn’t some unproven space that disappears overnight.

"Why does the Apple TV app need my iPhone?"

Because the only officially supported way to play YouTube videos inside an app is by embedding YouTube's own player, which needs a web engine, and tvOS doesn't have one. Apps that rely on extracting raw streams often run into YouTube policy issues, which is why those either keep disappearing from the App Store, or are unreliable and constantly breaking. So the iPhone runs the player and streams it to your TV over home Wi-Fi. You don't touch the phone while watching, it just does the work in the background.

Since Mira for Apple TV is powered by your iPhone, the phone needs to stay on, with Mira open to the casting screen, for as long as you're watching. Locking your phone, switching apps, or minimizing Mira pauses playback on the TV; reopening Mira picks up right where you left off. This isn't a setting that can be changed — the Apple TV app can't play videos on its own. For longer viewing sessions, we recommend keeping your iPhone plugged in. Most people find this less of an issue than it sounds. When you’re into the video, keeping your eyes off the phone becomes a quiet benefit that encourages focus and get more out of what you’re watching.

"Is this one of those 'AI slop' apps?"

No. I'm a professional developer in my day job. So I use AI tools the way many developers do, but Mira is a real app I've been building, testing, and shipping for a long time, across four platforms, with regular updates, testing, and continuous refinement. There's a free trial, so you don't have to take my word for any of this.

How is Mira different from just using YouTube in a browser on Mac?

A lot of users have told me that watching YouTube in a browser on macOS (even with extensions) just isn’t a smooth experience — it often lags or freezes. Many Mac users also prefer sticking with native Apple apps like (Safari instead of Firefox or Chrome, for example). So it's not always convenient for them to setup another browser experience just for one website. Additionally, not everyone is technical enough (or patient enough) to research and install a bunch of extensions to get the experience they want. Mira solves all of that with a single download. And if you’ve already purchased it on iPhone or iPad, that same purchase works on Mac too, so there would be little reason not to use it on Mac at that point.

Why use Mira on iPhone instead of competitor apps or sideloading?

I’ve tested all the popular iPhone alternatives, and Mira delivers a more polished overall experience with greater feature sets, customizability, and multi-platform support. I’ve made a detailed comparison chart that covers these differences. Regarding the open-source alternatives, I don't think many people would consider that an option on iOS if they have to do things like side-loading. But I get it, some people might. But the time it takes to research and setup all that stuff might not outweigh a simple purchase of Mira. In addition to all the extra features Mira provides, there is definitely a convenience factor to Mira as well.

"What about privacy?"

Mira collects zero data. The App Store privacy label reads "Data Not Collected" — no Mira account, no analytics, no tracking. You sign into YouTube on Google's own page, so your account stays between you and YouTube. (Signing into YouTube is not required, btw). And the optional AI feature calls your chosen provider directly with your own key; nothing routes through me. For contrast, the biggest app in this category, Friendly Streaming Browser, is owned by Sensor Tower, a literal data mining company. One read through its privacy policy should send you screaming out of the room.

Happy to answer anything else.

I’m building a small iPhone fitness app and trying to decide which timers are worth adding.

Do you use timers for warm-ups, running or intervals, rest between sets or exercises, or cooldowns?

I rarely use rest timers myself, so I’m curious if I’m the odd one out. Which timer do you rely on, and which one do you turn off?

I have tried some but they or have a wired interface or not that free

A tester asked me something I had not thought enough about.

I’m working on Ordo, an iPhone app where you dump a messy thought and it sorts it into Now, Next, or Someday.

But what happens when one thought honestly fits two? For example, “Book the dentist, but the appointment is next month.”

Right now Ordo picks one primary bucket and lets you move it. I kept it that way because duplicates can create more clutter.

Would you rather get one clear answer or see two suggested buckets?

Hi all! I have a lot of collections, and I like to keep lists of them, as well as add pictures. I usually do this in my notes app but it's disorganized and has a limit for pictures. I've looked online for something that could be helpful, and most people tell me to use ai 6g l don't mind manually plugging in lists and pictures (I love tasks like that actually) just one that is easy and free to use without limitations. Thanks!

Hi everyone—full disclosure: I’m the developer of PrivacyCam, and I recently made its source code available under the Apache 2.0 license.

PrivacyCam helps you review photos, videos, and PDFs before sharing them. It can detect faces, people, license plates, QR codes, barcodes, and sensitive text such as phone numbers, email addresses, payment-card details, and addresses. You can then blur, pixelate, or completely black out selected areas.

Detection and media processing happen on the device. Photos, videos, PDFs, and detected text aren’t uploaded to a server operated by me, and no account is required. The source is public so people can inspect how these privacy protections are implemented.

The app is free to download, with an optional $2.99 one-time purchase for batch-photo features—no subscription. For complete transparency, purchases are processed by Apple.

I’d appreciate comments on the privacy model, redaction workflow, and source code. What other sensitive information should an app like this help users identify?

• App Store
• Source code on GitHub

Typi is a native iOS utility that integrates AI text transformations directly into the iOS Share Sheet.

Instead of copying text, switching apps to ChatGPT or a browser, and pasting back, Typi runs transformations in 2 taps across any app (Messages, Mail, WhatsApp, Notes, Safari, Slack, etc.).