Support
Opening a YouTube link in Cloaki
Hold down any YouTube link in Safari, Messages, or another app and select Share from the contextual menu, then select Cloaki. The video will open directly in the private player. If Cloaki doesn't appear in the share sheet, tap More and make sure Cloaki is switched on in the list of apps.
Sharing a video
Select share from the ellipsis dropdown (top-left corner) while a video is playing. This copies a cloaki.app/watch link to your clipboard or lets you send it via Messages, Mail, or any other app. Anyone who taps the link on an iPhone or iPad with Cloaki installed will be taken straight into the player. On other devices, they'll see the video title, thumbnail, and a link to download the app.
Previewing a video before opening it
In card view, press and hold any video thumbnail for about half a second. Cloaki will cycle through alternate preview frames from the video. Release your finger to dismiss the preview without opening the video, or tap normally to open it. Preview frames are fetched through the Cloaki proxy, so they never expose your IP to Google's CDN.
Opening a related video from the player
Tap any related video suggestion shown by the YouTube player and it will open directly in Cloaki — the video is added to your watch history and stays fully private.
Picture in Picture
To keep watching while you use other apps, tap the full-screen button in the YouTube player, then tap the Picture in Picture button in the player that opens — or simply swipe home while the video is playing full screen. The video continues in a small floating window you can move, resize, or tap to return to Cloaki.
Playback pauses when you lock your device — including in Picture in Picture, if your device uses a passcode — and when you leave Cloaki without Picture in Picture. That isn't a setting we can change: YouTube's rules for apps that use its player don't allow a video to keep playing when the player isn't on screen.
Saving and playing playlists
Find playlists with the Playlists tab in search results, or open a playlist link from the web as described above — either way it opens in Cloaki, not a separate website or app. Tap the bookmark icon to save a playlist; saved playlists appear in the Playlists tab at the bottom of the app, next to Favorites.
Opening a playlist shows all of its videos, each with the same favorite and note icons as everywhere else. Tap any video to start playing — Cloaki plays through the playlist automatically, advancing to the next video when one finishes, and you can skip forward or back with the on-screen controls. Saved playlists stay on your device and can be removed with Clear Saved Playlists in Settings.
Getting notified about new videos
Open a channel inside Cloaki and tap Subscribe to follow it. In the sheet that appears you can choose how often Cloaki checks for new uploads, whether it may check in the background (so you're notified even when the app is closed), and can turn on Notify me of new videos. Some of the shorter check intervals are a Cloaki Premium feature.
When a channel you follow posts something new, Cloaki shows a count of unseen videos on the Channels tab and on the app icon, and — if you turned notifications on — sends a notification. Tapping it opens the channel it's about, on the Channels tab, and clears that channel's count — just as opening the channel from the list does. If you've unsubscribed from that channel since, Cloaki tells you so instead. Notifications are generated on your device rather than pushed from a server.
If notifications don't arrive, make sure they're allowed for Cloaki in the iOS Settings app; Cloaki will offer to open Settings if they're turned off. The app-icon badge appears only when notifications are allowed for Cloaki.
Adding notes to a favorite
Every video in your Favorites has a note icon next to the bookmark. Tap it to open a simple editor and jot down whatever you like — the icon fills in once a note exists. Notes are saved automatically when you close the editor.
While watching, Add Note at Current Time in the player's ⋯ menu (a Cloaki Premium feature) saves a tappable timestamp link at that exact moment, so you can jump back to that spot later. Tapping a timestamp inside a note opens the video right at that time. Adding a note from the player also saves the video to your Favorites if it isn't already.
Notes stay on your device. They're included in your iCloud backup only if you've turned on the backup setting, and they're removed if you remove the favorite (or use Clear Favorites in Settings).
Video won't play
Not every video can be played in an embedded player. When one can't, Cloaki tells you why rather than just failing — for example that the video is unavailable in your current region, has been made private or deleted, is age-restricted, or has been restricted to YouTube by the uploader.
Region restrictions when travelling. Some videos are blocked in certain countries, and this is enforced by your current internet location, not your device's Region setting. So a video you watched at home may stop playing when you're abroad (the preview thumbnails still load, since images aren't region-restricted). This is a restriction set by the uploader or rights holder; Cloaki can't bypass it.
If a video you expect to work still won't load, try turning off Privacy Protection in Settings — this disables tracker blocking, which could in rare cases interfere with the embedded player.
Search limit reached
Searches routed through Cloaki's proxy draw on a single daily YouTube API allotment shared by everyone using Cloaki, and each search spends a sizeable portion of it. The 5-per-day allowance keeps that shared pool fair: without it, a handful of heavy users could exhaust the day's quota and everyone using the shared quota could lose search for the remainder of that day. It resets at midnight in your local time zone, and it applies only to proxy-routed searches (including channel searches) — playback, favorites, saved playlists, channel browsing and shared links are unlimited for everyone.
Two things lift the allowance. The first is free: run entirely on your own YouTube quota by entering your own API key in Settings and turning Enable Proxy off in the same screen — see our guide to getting a key. Both are required. With the proxy on, your requests still go through Cloaki's server even when they carry your key — and without a key of your own, the proxy can't be turned off at all. When both apply, Settings shows "Unlimited searches — running on your own quota", and your searches no longer count against the daily allowance. Note the trade-off: with the proxy off, your searches go directly to Google from your device, which is exactly the privacy protection the proxy provides. The second is Cloaki Premium, which funds the proxy server that spends the shared quota — subscribers aren't counted against the allowance. Either route reaches exactly the same YouTube data: the allowance is about Cloaki's proxy capacity, never about access to YouTube itself.
Restore a purchase
If you reinstalled the app or switched devices, tap Restore Purchases on the paywall screen. Make sure you're signed in to the same Apple ID used for the original purchase.
Subscriptions and billing
Subscriptions are managed entirely by Apple. To cancel or view your subscription, go to Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions on your iPhone or iPad.
Privacy questions
See the Privacy Policy for a full explanation of how Cloaki handles your data. The short version: everything stays on your device, nothing is linked to your identity.