feat(YouTube): Change button icons from the outlined/thin icons to the old solid filled icons

[bluedragon-cairo]

Application

YouTube ReVanced

Issue

The outlined thin icons since 2021 are too ugly, and the old grey icons cannot be restored unless downgrading the YouTube app.

I've been using old Vanced 15.3x but it started to stop working recently.

Patch

Add an option to restore the old grey icons (not the ugly outlined icons) in settings.

Motivation

Some people who don't like the outlined icons will be satisfied.

Searched for duplicates in issues: gray, grey, outline, outlined, thin, old icon, old icons. Nothing found.

Acknowledgements

• [X] I have searched the existing issues and this is a new and no duplicate or related to another open issue.
• [X] I have written a short but informative title.
• [X] I filled out all of the requested information in this issue properly.

[KobeW50]

Which icons? Can you send a screenshot?

[oSumAtrIX]

If this patch is implemented, it will require supplying an old version of the YouTube APK to extract the assets from.

[LisoUseInAIKyrios]

You can already do this right now, with one of two ways:

1. Manually extract the old icons from YouTube 15.x (decompress the apk to its raw files, find the icons in the resource directories), then use those icons with ReVanced CLI tools and the custom branding patch.

Or

2. Change the app icon using your Android launcher (no CLI or patch options needed). Would still need to extract the old icons, but that can be done on the phone using any decompression tool.

Edit: the OP is referring to in app icons, and not the app launch icon. These steps will not provide this.

[oSumAtrIX]

There's no good time gap between moving the assets to the decoded resources folder and executing the patch

[bluedragon-cairo]

Which icons? Can you send a screenshot?

[bluedragon-cairo]

The icons below are the 'outlined/thin icons' that don't deserve to be called icons:

[LisoUseInAIKyrios]

The icons below are the 'outlined/thin icons' that don't deserve to be called icons:

You can enable app spoofing (under Settings -> Layout) and use a 16.x spoof target. You'll get these old icons.

[bluedragon-cairo]

I did tried but I didn't get the gray filled icons

[bluedragon-cairo]

Which icons? Can you send a screenshot?

I meant these icons

[LisoUseInAIKyrios]

These icon resources might still be in the apk (I haven't checked though). YouTube developers are like hoarders that never delete anything.

[Aunali321]

These icon resources might still be in the apk (I haven't checked though). YouTube developers are like hoarders that never delete anything.

Yup. They exist

[LisoUseInAIKyrios]

Looking at the larger picture, this could be done using patch that replaces images (icons) that are loaded thru litho.

A few patch points would alter existing litho images loaded, and replace them with user provided resources. The user loads a zipfile of replacement icons into the app, and those images are used as replacements.

Then create a template icon pack using public domain replacement icons, and let users modify that and come up with their own icon themes to share among themselves (ie: hello kitty icon packs, or whatever they want).

The patch would probably be limited to litho components and not native components (such as the player buttons when spoofing to 17.x), as native UI elements would require patching each individual image that is loaded.

Larger in scope than this issue, but would accomplish this goal and provide a lot more in return.

[oSumAtrIX]

Looking at the larger picture, this could be done using patch that replaces images (icons) that are loaded thru litho.

This approach would allow us to dynamically choose which images to use. While this is a nice idea, it is way more complex than benefitting the cause. I believe, replacing the images at patch time is a simpler solution that is pretty much good enough for someone, that would like this patch. It is not a patch that you may want to toggle necessarily.

[LisoUseInAIKyrios]

It could be done at patch time, yes. That should make the patch integrations simpler, since the replacement icons can be bundled and compiled as an app resource.