You open the App Store on your MacBook. You type "YouTube" into the search bar, hitting enter with the kind of muscle memory that usually gets you exactly what you want. But then, it happens. You’re staring at a grid of third-party "players," sketchy-looking wrappers, and generic video editors. There is no official YouTube Mac App Store result. It feels broken. Honestly, it’s one of the weirdest omissions in the Apple ecosystem, especially when you consider that almost every other Apple device—from the tiny Apple Watch to the iPad—has a dedicated app.
The reality is that Google and Apple have a complicated relationship. While you can find Google Maps or Gmail in the Mac App Store, YouTube remains noticeably absent. This isn't an accident. It’s a deliberate choice by Google to keep you inside the browser. They want you on Chrome or Safari where they have total control over the ad-serving pipeline and data collection without Apple's App Store tax or restrictive sandboxing policies.
Is it annoying? Yeah. Is it the end of the world? Not really.
The Frustrating Search for an Official YouTube Mac App Store Entry
If you've spent more than five minutes digging through the Mac App Store, you've seen the "alternatives." Friendly Streaming, Clicker for YouTube, or various "Menu Bar" apps. These are basically just web browsers with a tiny bit of extra code to make them look like standalone apps. They aren't "official."
Google’s refusal to port the iPad version of YouTube to the Mac—something that is technically very easy to do on M1, M2, and M3 chips—is a point of massive contention for users. Apple introduced "Mac Catalyst" years ago to bridge this gap. Theoretically, any developer with an iPad app can tick a box and bring it to the Mac. Google has explicitly opted out. They’ve gone as far as to flag the iPad app as "incompatible" with Silicon Macs in the backend, preventing you from even side-loading it through tools like PlayCover or the App Store’s "iPhone & iPad Apps" tab.
Why do they do this? Control. On the web, Google owns the player. They can tweak the algorithm, push "YouTube Premium" pop-ups, and manage your data exactly how they want without conforming to the specific UI guidelines Apple imposes on native Mac applications. Plus, they don't have to give Apple a 30% cut of any subscriptions handled through an app-based billing system, though that's less of an issue since you can just subscribe on the web.
The Browser is the New App
Let’s be real for a second. Most people don't actually need a native app. Modern browsers are incredibly fast. But the experience of having 50 tabs open and losing your music or a video essay in the clutter is a nightmare.
This is where the concept of a Progressive Web App (PWA) comes in. It is the closest thing you will ever get to a YouTube Mac App Store experience without Google actually building one.
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If you use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, you can "install" YouTube. It’s not a real installation in the traditional sense. It’s more like a dedicated window that lives in your Dock. You get a YouTube icon. You get a window without an address bar. It feels native. It’s fast. And most importantly, it supports media keys.
How to Build Your Own "App"
- Open YouTube in Chrome.
- Look at the right side of the address bar for a small icon that looks like a computer screen with a down arrow.
- Click "Install."
Suddenly, YouTube pops out into its own window. You can Command-Tab to it. It shows up in your Launchpad. It’s essentially a trick, but it’s a trick that works better than 90% of the junk apps you'll find by searching for "YouTube" in the actual App Store.
Why Third-Party Apps are a Gamble
You’ll see apps like "FreeTube" or "MacTube" mentioned in forums like Reddit or MacRumors. People love these because they often strip out ads or allow for "Picture-in-Picture" modes that Safari sometimes struggles with. But there’s a catch.
Third-party apps are constantly breaking. Every time Google updates the YouTube API or changes how their site is structured, these independent developers have to scramble to fix their code. You’re also handing your Google login credentials to a third party if you want to see your subscriptions. To many, that's a massive security "no-go."
I’ve seen dozens of these apps vanish from the Mac App Store over the years because Google issues a cease-and-desist or the developer just gives up. Relying on them is a temporary fix at best.
The Apple Silicon Factor
When Apple announced the M1 chip in 2020, the dream was that every app on your phone would live on your laptop. For a few weeks, it was the Wild West. You could download the YouTube IPA file (the app package) and run it on your Mac. It was glorious. You had offline downloads! You had a touch-optimized interface that worked surprisingly well with a trackpad.
Then Google shut it down.
They realized people were bypassing the browser. By disabling the "Allow to run on Mac" toggle in the App Store Connect dashboard, Google forced everyone back to the web. It shows that the lack of a YouTube Mac App Store presence isn't a technical limitation. It's a business strategy. Google wants your eyeballs in a place where they have the home-field advantage.
Better Ways to Experience YouTube on Mac
Since we can’t force Google’s hand, we have to optimize. If you hate the web interface, there are tools that actually improve the experience without pretending to be a fake app.
Vinegar is a great example. It’s a Safari extension that replaces the proprietary YouTube player with a standard HTML5 `