YouTube Music client for Android
10.7k
Stars
773
Forks
463
Open issues
30
Contributors
AI Analysis
Metrolist is a free, open-source YouTube Music client for Android built with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. It serves users who want a lightweight, privacy-conscious alternative to the official YouTube Music app, particularly those in regions with VPN access to YouTube Music. It is not suitable for users seeking a general music player or those without YouTube Music access.
Inferred from signals mentioned in the README (tests, CI, type safety) — not a review of the actual code.
AI's overall editorial judgment — not an average of the bars above, can weigh other factors too.
Metrolist: a full-featured open-source YouTube Music client for Android with offline support and social listening
Metrolist is a GPL-licensed Android app that provides an alternative front-end to YouTube Music, built in Kotlin using Material 3. It targets privacy-conscious and ad-averse Android users who want YouTube Music's catalog without the official app's restrictions or subscription requirements. Key features include background playback, offline caching, synced lyrics, YouTube account sync, equalizer, and a real-time 'listen together' social mode. With 10,353 stars, IzzyOnDroid listing, Obtainium support, and active Discord/Telegram communities, it has meaningful traction in the FOSS Android music space.
Created in August 2023, Metrolist appears to have forked or drawn heavily from z-huang/InnerTune's lineage, which was a well-known YouTube Music FOSS client. It has since evolved under a group maintainer model (MetrolistGroup), adding features beyond its predecessors.
The project accumulated over 10K stars roughly 2.5 years after creation, a solid growth rate for a niche FOSS Android app. A Trendshift badge in the README suggests it reached trending status on GitHub at some point. The 164 stars gained in the last 7 days indicate continued, organic community interest rather than a single viral spike. Growth is likely driven by YouTube Music's growing global catalog, frustration with the official app's paywall for background play, and community word-of-mouth on Reddit and FOSS-focused forums.
Available via IzzyOnDroid (a curated F-Droid-adjacent repo), Obtainium, and OpenAPK, which are established FOSS Android distribution channels. GitHub download badges are present but total count is not visible in the excerpt. Discord and Telegram communities exist, suggesting active user engagement. Exact install counts are not publicly verifiable, but IzzyOnDroid listing and 735 forks suggest meaningful real-world usage beyond casual browsing.
Likely follows a standard Android MVVM or MVI architecture given it is written in Kotlin with Material 3 components. Based on the README, it uses YouTube Music's internal APIs (via reverse engineering, common in this category), local caching for offline use, and integrates ExoPlayer or a similar media engine for playback. The Google Cast support mentioned in the nightly build filename suggests Cast SDK integration. Architecture details are not explicitly documented in the README excerpt.
not documented in README
Last push was 2026-06-24, approximately one day before the evaluation date — indicating active, ongoing development. The presence of both stable releases and nightly builds suggests a structured release pipeline. Community channels (Discord, Telegram) and IzzyOnDroid listing imply responsive maintainers. No signs of abandonment; the project appears actively maintained.
ADOPT IF: you want a feature-rich, actively maintained, free and open-source YouTube Music experience on Android without subscription requirements, and you are comfortable with the inherent fragility of unofficial API clients. AVOID IF: you need guaranteed long-term stability — YouTube can break unofficial API access at any time, and this is an inherent risk of the entire category, not specific to Metrolist. MONITOR IF: you are evaluating the FOSS Android music client space and want to track which project in the InnerTune lineage consolidates the community long-term.
Independent dimensions
Mainstream potential
4/10
Technical importance
6/10
Adoption evidence
6/10
- YouTube periodically changes its internal APIs, which can break all clients in this category simultaneously; Metrolist has no official API access and depends on reverse-engineered endpoints.
- Google could issue DMCA or legal pressure against the project, as has happened with similar tools in the past, potentially forcing takedowns or feature removal.
- The project depends on a small group of volunteer maintainers; bus-factor risk exists if key contributors become inactive.
- Regional restrictions mean the app is non-functional without a VPN for users in countries where YouTube Music is unavailable, limiting the addressable user base.
- Feature parity with the official app is inherently limited — features like Podcasts, YouTube Music's recommendation algorithms, or Cast support may degrade or lag as the official service evolves.
Metrolist is likely to remain one of the top 2-3 FOSS YouTube Music clients on Android for the foreseeable future, provided YouTube does not aggressively block unofficial access. Slow, steady growth is the most probable trajectory.
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Languages
Information
- Website
- https://metrolist.cc
- Language
- Kotlin
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Last updated
- 13h ago
- Created
- 35mo ago
- Analyzed with
- anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5
Stars over time
Contributors over time
Top 100 contributors only — repos with more will plateau at 100.
Open issues
Open pull requests
Fix manual queue priority and FIFO order during Shuffle
fix(ui): prevent auto-animate from overriding user-initiated sheet animations
[not-merge] fix(audio): apply normalization immediately from YouTube response, reset stale cross-track gain
Top contributors
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| Repository | Stars | Week Δ | Language | Score | Updated |
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Metrolist appears to be a spiritual successor or fork of InnerTune (5967 stars). InnerTune development slowed significantly; Metrolist has surpassed it in stars and appears more actively maintained as of mid-2026.
SimpMusic (9616 stars) is the closest direct competitor in stars and scope, also targeting YouTube Music on Android. The two projects compete for the same user base; feature sets overlap heavily but differ in UI approach and extras like Metrolist's 'listen together' feature.
LibreTube (12188 stars) targets YouTube video, not YouTube Music specifically. Different primary use case; less direct competition, but overlaps for users who use YouTube for music.
PipePipe is a broader YouTube/PeerTube/SoundCloud client focused on video. Not a direct competitor for dedicated music listening workflows.
Flow (1254 stars) is a smaller YouTube Music client in the same category. Metrolist significantly outpaces it in adoption and feature breadth based on available metadata.
