This release primarily marks Invidious companion's ascend out of beta and its stable integration thereof into Invidious!
For those unaware Invidious companion is the successor to the `inv-sig-helper` tool, designed to securely pass YouTube's attestation checks and allow for the efficient retrieval and playback of video streams reliably.
Companion delivers YouTube fixes faster since it’s built on the community-driven [YouTube.js](https://github.com/LuanRT/YouTube.js) project, used by many open source projects such as [FreeTube](https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube).
For more information see https://github.com/iv-org/invidious-companion and https://docs.invidious.io/installation/
But companion isn't the only new thing in this release!
Invidious will no longer error out completely as soon as a single item failed to parse in search results, channel pages, etc. Instead it now handles it gracefully by substituting those problematic items with an error card and rendering the page normally.
The player has gained some quality of life features such as being able to choose a default playlist for videos to be added to, or persisting caption appearance settings across the session.
Base Invidious video retrieval without Invidious companion has also been made more stable.
And finally a significant amount of bugs were fixed alongside many other minor improvements.
### New features & important changes
#### For Users
- DASH is now enabled by default due to YouTube's removal of the 720p non-dash streams
- Javascript licencing info has been added to all of Invidious' scripts, restoring full compatibility with LibreJS
- There is no longer an option for a text captcha during registration due to the shutdown (presumably) of the upstream service
- Parse errors in feeds will no longer render the entire feed unusable and instead will substitute only the broken items with error cards
- Keyboard shortcuts have been added to configure caption styles:
-`-`,`=` can be used to change the font size
-`o` can be used to cycle the opacity of the caption text
-`w` can be used to cycle the opacity of the caption box
- Caption styles changed through the VideoJS menu will now persist
- You can now choose a default playlist to add videos to instead of needing to manually select one each time
#### For instance owners
- Invidious companion support has been added to replace the deprecated inv-sig-helper
- **DASH is now the default resolution! Please ensure that your instances can withstand the significantly higher bandwidth usage or manually configure your instance to use non-dash streams by default**
- Invidious will now warn when it is unable to connect to the database instead of failing silently
- **The text captcha during registration has been removed due to the shutdown (presumably) of the upstream service**
#### For developers
- Dependabot has been added to keep Github Actions and Docker dependencies up-to-date.
- CI version matrix has been bumped to the latest patch release for each minor version
- The versions of Crystal that we test in CI/CD are now: `1.12.2`, `1.13.3`, `1.14.1`, `1.15.1`, `1.16.3`
-`Kilt` is no longer a dependency of Invidious
- The ARM64 docker image builds (and the test CI) has been changed to use Github's ARM64 runner instead of QEMU
- **An "error" JSON object can now be returned in various API responses in-place of an item that has failed to parse**:
```json
{
"type": "parse-error",
"errorMessage": "...",
"errorBacktrace": "..."
}
```
### Bugs fixed
#### User-side
- Livestream will now be properly proxied again allowing playback from the UI
- The proxy video preference for logged-in users will no longer get ignored when a default value is set by the instance
- Fixes the missing `label` key error on select search results and other feeds
- Invidious will no longer strip out spaces from search queries when navigating back from the preferences page
- Restores functionality to the `subscriptions:true` search keyword
- The channel RSS feeds will no longer have an empty title
- Individual community posts can be viewed again
- The playlists tab of channels can be viewed again
- Fix incorrect dates, region, etc of videos
- Various minor fixes were made to how video info is extracted in setups without Invidious companion to improve resiliency and chances of success
- Fix issue where the notification count becomes `TRUE` rather than an actual number
#### For instance owners
- Fixed a minor typo in config.example.yml (`effet` -> `effect`)
#### For developers
- The docker image test CI will now properly check whether Invidious has started
### Full list of pull requests merged since the last release (newest first)
* Add Invidious companion support (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/4985, by @unixfox)
* Bump shards.yml version to dev version (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5206, by @syeopite)
* chore: enforce 16 characters for invidious_companion_key (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5220, by @unixfox)
* chore: set dash by default (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5216, by @unixfox)
* Fix minor casing issues in brand names (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5258, thanks @efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc)
* feat: route to invidious companion on downloads (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5224, by @alexmaras)
* Fix proxying live DASH streams (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/4589, thanks @absidue)
* Reflect companion secret character limit in example config comment (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5269, thanks @Vyquos)
* chore: Add dependabot for docker and github actions (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5285, by @unixfox)
* Bump actions/stale from 8 to 9 (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5291, thanks @dependabot[bot])
* Bump actions/cache from 3 to 4 (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5289, thanks @dependabot[bot])
* Bump alpine from 3.20 to 3.21 in /docker (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5288, thanks @dependabot[bot])
* Bump docker/build-push-action from 5 to 6 (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5287, thanks @dependabot[bot])
* Bump crystal-lang/install-crystal from 1.8.0 to 1.8.2 (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5286, thanks @dependabot[bot])
* Bump crystallang/crystal from 1.12.2-alpine to 1.16.2-alpine in /docker (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5290, thanks @dependabot[bot])
* Bump crystallang/crystal from 1.16.2-alpine to 1.16.3-alpine in /docker (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5301, thanks @dependabot[bot])
* CI: Bump Crystal version matrix (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5293, by @Fijxu)
* fix(typo): 'Salect' -> 'Select' (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5242, by @Fijxu)
* fix: set CSP header after setting preferences of registered users (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5275, by @Fijxu)
* fix: safely access "label" key (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5282, by @Fijxu)
* Add missing javascript licenses (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5292, by @Fijxu)
* Add Javascript licence information automatically (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5297, by @syeopite)
* Remove text captcha due to textcaptcha.com being down (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5308, by @Fijxu)
* Release versioning maintenance (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5310, by @syeopite)
* Update Kemal to 1.6.0 and remove Kilt (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5120, by @syeopite)
* Translations update from Hosted Weblate (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5192, thanks @weblate)
* require base_job before the other jobs (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5194, by @Fijxu)
* Handle parse errors gracefully on timeline items (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5196, by @syeopite)
* fix: do not strip '+' character from referer (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5276, by @Fijxu)
* fix: pass user to `query.process` if present. (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5277, by @Fijxu)
* Add missing xml.text on "title" element for channels RSS (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5320, by @Fijxu)
* Remove `@iv-org/developers` from codeowners (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5314, by @syeopite)
* Make base-Invidious video info extraction more resilient (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5312, by @syeopite)
* Bump actions/checkout from 4 to 5 (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5415, thanks @dependabot[bot])
This release brings the long awaited feature of supporting multiple audio tracks in a video, some bug fixes and UX improvements, and many other things primarily oriented to self-hosting instances, and developers using the API.
The `Community` channel tab has been replaced by `Posts` in light of YouTube changes, but the URL remains the same.
Tamil is now available as an interface language
Automatic instance redirects will no longer have the chance to annoyingly redirect to the same instance you're on.
Due to their requirements for video playback, Invidious will log warning messages when either inv-sig-helper, `po_token` or `visitor_data` is not configured
Invidious is now able to listen through a UNIX socket
User notifications are now batched for each channel
**The minimum Crystal version supported by Invidious now `1.12.0`**
### New features & important changes
#### For users
* Invidious now supports videos with multiple audio tracks allowing you to select which one you want to hear with!
* Channel pages now have a proper previous page button
* RSS feeds for channels will no longer contain the channel's profile picture
* Support for channel `courses` page has been added
*`Community` tabs has been replaced with `Posts` to comply with YouTube changes
* Tamil is now an available interface language.
#### For instance owners
* Invidious is now able to listen on a UNIX socket
* User notifications are now batched by channels, significantly reducing database load.
* **`1.12.0` is now the oldest Crystal version that Invidious supports**
* The example config will no longer force an http proxy to be configured
* Invidious will now warn when any top-level config option must be set to a custom value, instead of just `HMAC_KEY`
* Due to their requirements for video playback, Invidious will log warning messages when either inv-sig-helper, `po_token` or `visitor_data` is not configured
#### For developers
* Invidious is now compliant to Crystal 1.15 formatting rules, which are incompatible with earlier versions.
*`/api/v1/transcripts/{id}` has been added to the API to allow for fetching the transcripts for a video. The arguments are the same as the captions endpoint.
*`author_thumbnail` field has been added to videos in the various paged api endpoints
*`published` field has been added to the API response for a video's related videos.
* Docker builds now uses the Crystal compiler cache, reducing build times on repeated builds significantly.
* Invidious ajax action handlers has undergone a clean up and may face compatibility issues with code that depends on these endpoints.
* The versions of Crystal that we test in CI/CD are now: `1.12.1`, `1.13.2`, `1.14.0`, `1.15.0`
### Bugs fixed
#### User-side
* Local video listen mode is now preserved when clicking on a video in the sidebar playlist widget
* Automatic instance redirects will no longer redirect to the same instance the user is on
* Fix some thumbnails responses returning 404
* Videos: Fix missing host parameter on playback URLs when `local=true`
* Fix HLS being used for non-livestream videos
* Fix timeupdate event errors when required elements are missing
* User: Ensure IO is properly closed when importing NewPipe subscriptions
#### For instance owners
* Fix http proxy configuration being forced by the standard example config
#### API
*`/api/v1/videos/{id}` will no longer return an occasional empty JSON response
### Full list of pull requests merged since the last release (newest first)
* Make Invidious compliant to Crystal 1.15 formatting rules (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5014, by @syeopite)
* Remove formatter check on container workflows (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5153, by @syeopite)
* Videos: Fix missing host parameter on playback URLs when `local=true` (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/4992, by @SamantazFox)
* Remove stdlib override for proxy initialization (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5065, by @syeopite)
* Add support for author thumbnails in search api for videos (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5072, thanks @ChunkyProgrammer)
* Skip route if resp got closed by before handlers (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5073, by @syeopite)
* Fix video thumbnails in mixes (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5116, thanks @iBicha)
* CI: Drop support for versions prior to 1.12 and add 1.15.0 (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5148, by @syeopite)
* [Continuing #5094] Set language info for dash audio streams and sort (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5149, thanks @giuliano-macedo)
* Warn when any top-level config is "CHANGE_ME!!" (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5150, by @syeopite)
* Comment out http_proxy in example config (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5151, by @syeopite)
* API: Add a 'published' video parameter for related videos (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/4149, thanks @RadoslavL)
* Ensure IO is properly closed when importing NewPipe subscriptions (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/4346, thanks @ChunkyProgrammer)
* Carry over audio-only mode in playlist links (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/4784, thanks @krystof1119)
* Routes: Clean ajax actions handlers (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/5036, by @SamantazFox)
* Frontend: Add a first page and previous page buttons for channel navigation (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/pull/4123, thanks @RadoslavL)
