Hey everyone, I’m looking for beta testers for a Windows app I’ve been building called ApricotPlayer. I originally started making ApricotPlayer for myself, because I wanted something that could replace Renova Music for the way I actually listen to content: fast, keyboard-friendly, accessible, and not annoying with a screen reader. At first it was just a personal project, but while building it I realized it could probably be useful for other blind and screen-reader users too, so I’m now slowly opening it up and looking for people who want to test it properly. ApricotPlayer is mainly an accessible YouTube player and downloader, but it has grown into much more than that. You can search YouTube, play videos directly in the app, browse channels, open channel videos and playlists, sort a channel by popular videos, play playlists, shuffle playlists, play live streams, use trending videos, open direct links supported by yt-dlp, and keep playback running in the background while you browse other parts of the app. It also supports local media files and whole folders, including play folder, shuffle folder, folder queues, and Windows file association support. The player has normal controls like play, pause, next, previous, seek, volume, repeat, shuffle, fullscreen, output device selection, playback speed, pitch, resume position, stream URL copying, and video details. There is also a playback queue, favorites, history, user playlists, YouTube channel subscriptions, notifications for new videos, and a notification center. Podcasts and RSS feeds are supported too, with podcast search, direct RSS/Atom feeds, episode playback, downloads, feed refresh, queue support, and notifications. ApricotPlayer also has a lot of audio tools built in. There is a 10-band equalizer with custom profiles, deletable presets, global and player-only EQ modes, bass boost, volume boost, clipping protection, selectable EQ ranges, output device memory for the current session, and local-file edit mode where you can change speed, pitch, or EQ and save an edited copy. You can also set start and end markers, preview only the marked section, and export marked clips as audio or video. For downloading, it supports audio and video downloads, playlist downloads, channel downloads, batch downloads, progress windows, subtitles, thumbnails, metadata, descriptions, different quality options, MP4 video preference, browser cookies, manual cookies, advanced network options, YouTube age/login fallback support, and yt-dlp component updates. It also includes an FFmpeg-powered file and folder converter for many audio and video formats, with accessible dialogs, recursive folder conversion, safe overwrite options, and progress feedback. The app is designed around keyboard and screen-reader use, especially NVDA. It uses native Windows controls where possible, has configurable shortcuts, accessible result lists, screen-reader-friendly announcements, Braille-friendly messages, stable focus behavior, translated UI languages, a system tray mode, optional startup with Windows, update checking through GitHub releases, and an installer plus portable ZIP builds. Right now I’m especially looking for testers who can really push the app: YouTube playback, downloads, playlists, podcasts, RSS feeds, local files, folders, the equalizer, volume boost, bass boost, output devices, screen-reader navigation, keyboard shortcuts, and weird edge cases. If something breaks, if focus gets stuck, if a shortcut feels wrong, if audio sounds strange, or if a feature is confusing, I want to know. I also have bigger plans for the future. I want to add lyrics support, YouTube and podcast chapters, reading and replying to comments (perhaps allowing you to sign in to your actual Youtube account), more AI integrations, an account system so you can store your subscriptions on a server in case you switch machines, and possibly AudioVault support for easier access to audio-described movies. I’m also thinking about a premium version later for some advanced features, but the goal is that most of ApricotPlayer will stay free and useful for everyone. If you use a screen reader, listen to a lot of YouTube, podcasts, local files, playlists, or audio-described content, and you enjoy testing new accessible software while it is still growing, I’d love your feedback. ApricotPlayer is still in beta, so it is not perfect yet, but it is improving quickly, and real testers are the reason it keeps getting better. If you're interested, send me a PM.
I mean, yeah? Would love to try. You say update checking through GitHub releases, just drop the link to it then I guess, or idk, you DM me, I'm lazy you know.
Well, it is on GitHub but only temporarily, since after the official release I am not planning to make it open source, just yet. It was much simpler for me to put it on GitHub for updates, since in the beta state updates are quite frequent.
Honestly something like this would be best open source, since there are way too many closed source apps similar to this, and people appreciate being able to look at the code and all that.
Wait, doesn't TCA media downloader or what it's called, do the same? Correct me if I'm wrong, but for me it seems that you are trying to reinvent the wheel. Also, it's never good to rely on such apps. YT-DLP is getting updates pretty often, and if you don't update it in time, your users are blocked. That's why most of these downloaders stop working after a while. Your best bet is to download right from the CLI of yt-dlp so you always know if you are up to date. Edit: and also potplayer can do this.
Όταν θα κοιτάς την θάλασσα Χωρίς να το θέλεις, θα βλέπεις εμένα Και τα μάτια σου θα ‘ναι θλιμμένα Όταν θα ξυπνάς στον ύπνο σου Χωρίς να το θέλεις, θα σκέφτεσαι εμένα Και θα νιώθεις μεγάλο κενό
TCA Media downloader pales in comparison, as this is both a media player and youtube downloader. Also, it has an updater for YTDLP builtin, and from what I've been able to gather the updater actually works fine, which means the feature will technically never fail. Also, like I previously mentioned, I only built this for myself first but then quickly realised that many people would benefit from this, so I am not trying to reinvent anything, if anyone finds it useful, use it, otherwise just forget it exists.
In that case, it's cool and it's great you thought about it already at the beginning.
-- (Urh2006): TCA Media downloader pales in comparison, as this is both a media player and youtube downloader. Also, it has an updater for YTDLP builtin, and from what I've been able to gather the updater actually works fine, which means the feature will technically never fail. Also, like I previously mentioned, I only built this for myself first but then quickly realised that many people would benefit from this, so I am not trying to reinvent anything, if anyone finds it useful, use it, otherwise just forget it exists.
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Όταν θα κοιτάς την θάλασσα Χωρίς να το θέλεις, θα βλέπεις εμένα Και τα μάτια σου θα ‘ναι θλιμμένα Όταν θα ξυπνάς στον ύπνο σου Χωρίς να το θέλεις, θα σκέφτεσαι εμένα Και θα νιώθεις μεγάλο κενό
I think he knows what advantages he gets from it being either one, so how about we not do that? Open vs Closed source is getting the new Apple vs Android thing.
Disregard this post, there was a critical issue right when I was about to release this to the public lol, but expect a public release soon, still in beta form, but after some consideration I have decided to make this an open source project for now, the readme is still ongoing and it is not complete by any means, will be after all the major features are complete.
After some consideration, I have decided to publicly release ApricotPlayer, however, still in early beta stages, as it would help me a ton if as many of you could test and report back. Soon there'll also be a website for this and my other software, but but I have decided that I will make this open source for now. Since there is no readme, I strongly encourage you to explore and find your way around, in fact, it has an extremely simple interface, and if you're coming from RenovaMusic or anything similar you'll feel right at home. Installer: https://github.com/Urh2006/ApricotPlayer/releases/download/v0.9.17/ApricotPlayerSetup.exe Portable: https://github.com/Urh2006/ApricotPlayer/releases/download/v0.9.17/ApricotPlayer.zip There has been a major refactor of the code today, so I expect this to be buggy honestly, but expect frequent updates, especially in the beta period.
