[Video info page → More options]: add "Open in external app" button

[PetbkA]

Describe the feature you want

It would be nice to have Open in external app button in Video info page → More options.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe it

Case 1
Some videos are too quiet, and I have to use MX Player to override maximum volume. To open such video, I have to:

1. Go to Settings → Video & Audio and enable Use external video player option;
2. Watch the video;
3. Repeat Step 1 to disable the option.

This is pretty inconvenient. Share button doesn't help 'cause it doesn't show MX Player in the list of apps, under the Open in browser button.

Case 2
Comes from #3314 - some people want to like videos, write comments and so on. Opening it in browser won't help if browser is set to open YouTube links in NewPipe - it'll just redirect to NP. Share button also doesn't list YouTube app.

How will you/everyone benefit from this feature?

1. Everyone will be able to quickly open certain video in external video player;
2. Everyone will be able to quickly open certain video in YouTube app to do things that they can't do with NP;
3. Everyone will be able to pick another app for some other purposes

[B0pol]

Case 2: #3501 fixes open in browser, then you'll be able to see on youtube the comments, or like / comment if you want.
Available in the next version

Case 1: You want an option to use external player in the three dot menu instead of enabling it in settings, am i right?

[PetbkA]

Case 2: #3501 fixes open in browser, then you'll be able to see on youtube the comments, or like / comment if you want.

It's nice. Thank you!

Case 1: You want an option to use external player in the three dot menu instead of enabling it in settings, am i right?

For me yes, that would be enough. In fact, at first I wrote FR about external player only, but I then I saw #3314 and thought that the external app gives more flexibility in terms of what you can do with the video. For example:

1. Somebody may want to edit comments using YouTube app, not the browser;
2. Somebody may have several players and open link not in "default" one.

That's the examples I can think of. May be there's another applications for this option.

But I also understand that implementing use of external app is harder, and, considering unobviuos profit, it may be not the best option

[B0pol]

Let's explain how it works currently:

• share menu: we share the URL (YouTube, SoundCloud, MediaCCC or PeerTube) to an app which has declared in their manifest file to handle URLs. For example, NewPipe has declared to handle text/plain data here. Then in NewPipe, we try to see if the URL is Youtube / soundcloud / peertube / mediaccc, if it is we open it, otherwise we say "url unsupported".
  If MX Player isn't available in this share menu, there is nothing that can be done from us, but you can contact MX Player and ask them to support shared URLs.

• The current (and soon old) way for "open in browser" was to send the link to the default app that can handle the URL. If no default app was set, it opened a chooser. But the problem is, of course NewPipe can handle youtube / … links, so if you've set NewPipe as default for youtube /… links, it will open in newpipe.

• New "open in browser", Open in browser button now really opens in browser #3501 : it see what is the default app able to open http://, that's everytime the browser in android 6+, and then we share the URL to it. If no browser is set as default, we use the current (and soon old) method.

Now let's explain how external player works:
It uses playOnExternalPlayer method (here). This method gather the stream type (MP3 is one stream type for musics, for example), and sends it the same way as old open in browser works: to the default app that said they can handle this type.

Then what can be done for your request in NewPipe:

• Open in external player, with the default one. It will use the current (soon old) open in browser way i've explained
• share to external players: it will show which app said they can handle .mkv files for example (it's a video type)

What can't be done:
Share the Youtube URL to apps that haven't declared to handle the URLs.

It's the case of YouTube app, MX Player, they haven't declared to handle YouTube URLs when sharing, that's why you can't see YouTube app in share menu, and it isn't possible to solve that, unless you ask YouTube and they change that.

[PetbkA]

Thanks for the clarification! I don't know what's the best of two offered methods, for me it'll be enough to have a button that triggers the same method as the one used when Use external video player is on

[B0pol]

Share with external player will be implemented with #3449