offline-ready feeds (pre-load Shorts + Home recommendations on Wi-Fi, keep them available offline)

[MAKAKAIglitch]

Hi! First of all, thanks for MeeTube, it's the nicest YouTube client I've used.

I wanted to discuss an idea and hear whether it fits the project.

The idea
While the phone is connected to Wi-Fi, the app quietly pre-loads feeds in the background, so they are still there when the connection drops (subway, train, plane, weak signal):

1. Shorts feed: pre-download a batch of upcoming Shorts (e.g. 20–50) so I can keep swiping offline, like TikTok does, but with a persistent cache. I noticed the next Short is already buffered while watching, so this would extend that from "1 video in memory" to "N videos on disk".
2. Home / recommendations feed: save the feed itself (titles, channels, thumbnails) so the Home tab doesn't show an empty screen or an error offline, and optionally pre-download some of the videos at low quality so they can actually be played.

Must be opt-in and bounded

• Disabled by default. Nothing is downloaded in the background until the user turns it on in Settings.
• Easy to turn off at any time; turning it off stops all background loading and (optionally) clears the cache.
• Hard storage limit chosen by the user (e.g. 250 MB / 500 MB / 1 GB / 2 GB), with a small default. No "unlimited" option. When the limit is reached, the oldest items are evicted.
• Wi-Fi only by default; mobile data is a separate opt-in.
• Separate toggles for Shorts and Home, plus a "Clear cache" button and a line showing the current cache size.
• Respects battery saver / data saver.

How it could work

• While on Wi-Fi and idle (ideally charging), the app fills the cache from the Shorts feed and the Home feed, within the limit.
• Offline, Shorts and Home show the cached feed. Watched items are removed and the cache refills when back online.

Concerns I can think of

• Storage and battery use, hence the limits and off-by-default.
• Pre-loaded but unwatched videos shouldn't count as watched (no watch-time pings), otherwise history and recommendations get polluted.
• Home videos are much heavier than Shorts, so maybe start with Shorts + cached feed list (metadata only) and add full video pre-download later.

Questions

• Does this fit the direction of MeeTube?
• Would a smaller first step make sense, e.g. only the Shorts cache?

Thanks!