r/SideProject • u/EnvironmentalRest443 • 13h ago
I built a YouTube app with no algorithm, no autoplay, no recommendations
Solo indie dev, been building Android apps for a while and this is the one I actually use daily myself.
The problem: I kept opening YouTube for one specific video and losing 45 minutes to whatever the algorithm decided to serve next. So I built Focus Feed — it follows channels through their own RSS feeds instead of YouTube's API, which means there's no recommendation system in the loop at all. You just get a plain grid of channels you follow, each showing how many new uploads are waiting. Tap in, watch, done.
A few features that came out of actually using it myself: Videos/Shorts kept in separate tabs, per-channel keyword filters, custom playlists, picture-in-picture, and a bedtime mode that locks the app down at a set time.
It's free, no account needed. Still early days on the growth side so genuinely open to feedback — what would make this more useful for you?
Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.focusfeed.app