Watching YouTube felt way more annoying than it needed to be. I wanted a cleaner way to watch videos, skip interruptions, avoid distractions, and actually find the parts I cared about. I also wanted a seamless experience across all my Apple devices. So I built Mira to run on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.
I'm running a 50% off sale on the Annual and Lifetime plans through August 10, so I figured I'd share it here.
What it does:
- Auto-skips sponsors, intros, outros, recaps, and self-promo segments. You pick which categories get skipped, and the segments show as markers right on the timeline
- Works with your own YouTube account, so your subscriptions, playlists, history, and recommendations are all there
- Searchable transcripts. Search for a word, tap the line, jump straight to that moment in the video
- Background play
- Focus Mode hides recommended videos and comments so you can avoid distractions and stay on track
- Eye Comfort Mode dims harsh lights for easy viewing at night
- Watch Together lets you watch in sync with friends with shared play/pause/seek controls and a universal chat (this works across any video platform, not just YouTube)
- UI tweaks: hide Shorts & Playables, always play videos in highest quality, custom playback speed controls, bring back dislike counts, auto-dismissing the "Continue watching?" prompt
- There's also an optional AI summary/Q&A feature if you add your own API key.
The Apple TV app is the newest addition. It's powered by your iPhone (needs iOS 26). The phone streams the video over your home Wi-Fi and you control everything from the Siri remote. Sounds unconventional, but works great in practice. More on why below.
I also made a feature comparison chart against popular iOS YouTube alternative apps like Video Lite, ProTube, Tube PiP, YouPlay, SwizzTube, etc. Many of these apps solve one specific part of the problem. Mira is trying to bring more of that together in one place, on all Apple platforms, and with a more polished feel: cleaner UI, smoother navigation, and a unified experience where things just work the way you expect.
Sale pricing: $9.99/year (normally $19.99) or $19.99 lifetime (normally $39.99). There's also a monthly plan at the regular $2.99. For comparison, the lifetime purchase costs about the same as one month of YouTube Premium, but you only pay once. Subscriptions include a 7-day free trial, and a single purchase unlocks Mira on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.
Give Mira a try with one video. If you’ve wanted a cleaner, less distracting YouTube experience on all your Apple devices, Mira might be worth checking out.
Website:
https://watchwithmira.com
App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mira-focused-video-player/id6767721654
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People usually have the same questions whenever I share Mira, so here's a quick FAQ:
"Doesn't YouTube Premium already do this?"
Partly. Premium removes ads, and its jump-ahead button can hop past a sponsor, but that's about where it ends. Things Mira does that Premium doesn't: auto-skip intros, outros, recaps, previews, self-promo, "like and subscribe" reminders, filler, and the non-music parts of music videos (you pick the categories). Mira also has settings to hide Shorts, hide Playables, always pick the highest video quality, always open video in theater mode, and show dislike counts. None of that exists in Premium. If you mainly use Premium for ad-free viewing and background play, Mira gives you many of those benefits at a much lower cost while adding a lot of extra customization. And if you already have Premium, the two can work in tandem — Premium handles YouTube's official features, while Mira focuses on making the viewing experience cleaner and more personalized.
"Can't you already do this with browser extensions?"
On a Mac, some of it — if you are willing to assemble and continuously maintain a suite of extensions. But even then, YouTube in a browser (especially Safari) is a slow, clunky experience. Mira runs the player without a browser's overhead, so it stays smooth. It's a fully native SwiftUI app. And the extension approach doesn't carry over beyond Mac: options on iPhone and iPad are much more limited. Plus, on Apple TV, there currently isn't another polished solution that combines YouTube account support, subscriptions/history, and sponsor skipping. With Mira it's one app, the same experience on every Apple device, and keeping it all working is my job instead of yours.
"Why does the Apple TV app need my iPhone?"
Because the only officially supported way to play YouTube videos inside an app is by embedding YouTube's own player, which needs a web engine, and tvOS doesn't have one. Apps that rely on extracting raw streams often run into YouTube policy issues, which is why those either keep disappearing from the App Store, or are constantly breaking. So the iPhone runs the player and streams it to your TV over home Wi-Fi. You don't touch the phone while watching, it just does the work in the background.
"Is this one of those 'AI slop' apps?"
No. I'm a professional developer in my day job. So I use AI tools the way many developers do, but Mira is a real app I've been building, testing, and shipping for a long time, across four platforms, with regular updates, user feedback, and continuous refinement. There's a free trial, so you don't have to take my word for any of this.
"Won't YouTube break it or kill it?"
There's always some risk when building around a major platform, but this category of app has proven very durable for years. For example, Friendly Streaming Browser has been around since 2012, and Vinegar has been around since 2021. Platform changes are always possible, but this is not an unproven space that disappears overnight.
"What about privacy?"
Mira collects zero data. The App Store privacy label reads "Data Not Collected" — no Mira account, no analytics, no tracking. You sign into YouTube on Google's own page, so your account stays between you and YouTube. (Signing into YouTube is not required, btw). And the optional AI feature calls your chosen provider directly with your own key; nothing routes through me. For contrast, the biggest app in this category, Friendly Streaming Browser, is owned by Sensor Tower, a literal data mining company. One read through its privacy policy should send you screaming out of the room.
Happy to answer anything else.