I’m using a stock Samsung Galaxy 8 phone right now (with Android 10) and I disabled the YouTube app. I was basically sick of its s***. Since then, I never sign in to the app/site, and so may aspects of using the site are much better now.
- Everything is faster, since they don’t know me / aren’t tracking as much.
- I always open YT in Firefox Focus, which doesn’t ever keep cookies or history each time I close it, so there’s no history for YT to mine each time I visit again.
- I’m pretty sure I see fewer ads since I don’t have a deep history for YT to mine / target.
- More random suggestions from YT means I am mostly broken out of the bubble caused by their tracking. I find new, interesting music, for instance, now, from the suggestions.
- Hitting “back” in the browser means I go back wherever I was before, not to the YT home page (like the app used to do to me)
I still visit the site often, and appreciate all the good music and channels I watch, but now it’s overall a much more positive experience, more like YT was a few years ago versus the horrible mess it’s become recently.
I’d still appreciate any other tips anyone has for making YT visits even more enjoyable.
Pro-tip: use NewPipe and you’ll never want to go back. You can install it from F-Droid.
YouTube ReVanced is also a must-have for Android users.
For whatever it’s worth, and whoever reads this, I’ve had extensive buffering issues with Vanced/Revanced for months. Recently purged the MicroG and vanced software, and reinstalled the Revanced Extended, and it works flawlessly!
The only problem with newpipe is you can’t log in and manage your own stuff.
On the other I love that you don’t need an account to be able to “subscribe” for a custom feed, group channels into custom categories, or make playlists. And all being able to get backed up locally.
On one hand it’s great that it works that way. On the other hand, I use youtube only sometimes on my tablet so I would like to have my subscriptions carried over. Can’t have it all I guess.
You can have playlists and subscriptions but it’s just that they’re going to be local.
What “own stuff” can’t you manage? Do you mean your own channel’s videos? Or do you mean your account’s subscribed channels?
I’m enjoying LibreTube as well
I second this, it’s great if you care about a modern interface that feels in line with other Android apps these days. Pretty darn slick app with a lot of nice customization features
Yah, I use Piped and https://yewtu.be/ now too.
But the last time I tried to use NewPipe, it was slowwww and would frequently be broken by changes made by YT. I’ll have to check it out again.
If you already use Piped and have Android then you can use LibreTube, a client for Piped
Can newpipe, or any other yt forks, cast via Chromecast?
I use bubble upnp. If you share the yt link to it, you can cast the video to your Chromecast devices https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft.android.bubbleupnp
Thnx!
Also there’s
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Or even better: LibreTube
I always open YT in Firefox Focus, which doesn’t ever keep cookies or history each time I close it, so there’s no history for YT to mine each time I visit again.
This is not true. Google doesn’t much care about cookies; they employ far more effective means of fingerprinting.
Install Newpipe and you get an even better YouTube experience. Can be a Holy Shit experience for people who never knew YouTube before it became shit.
There’s a fork of NewPipe with sponsor block. I’d highly recommended getting that.
The equivalent on your PC would be an app called freetube
Sponsor block is also available as a browser plugin on desktop
Its a bit out of date currently sadly
Works perfectly fine for me. I use it daily, including right now. Give it a shot. Some people are put off by not having personalised suggestions or being able to login to sync or the different interface…but for me all of those are strengths of the app, not weaknesses.
There’s also YouTube revanced as well
Literally would not visit youtube otherwise, as proven by the brief pause after Vanced stopped working.
Base YouTube is a cancer experience. I used vanced back when it existed. The second they shut down, I stopped using mobile YouTube and just used it on Firefox PC with ad block. When I heard reVanced was a thing, I downloaded it and it’s essentially just like vanced.
I will never use YouTube without adblock unless they either change their monetization system, or ad system.
For anyone else not aware of this.
Cries on iPhone
You can use Yattee. There’s a guide on how to set it up correctly. You can also just add the Piped website to your homescreen. That’s what I’ve been doing for over a year, before I switched to GrapheneOS. Now I can enjoy LibreTube.
Side tangent but god, just unbelievable how an app like YouTube would ever be a system app on Stock that you can’t just uninstall without needing to go through hoops like ADB. Samsung includes so much fuckery on their variants of Android, but to be fair, I believe even on stock Pixels, YouTube is a system app as well, so can’t even entirely blame them for this case. Still unacceptable and insane to me.
Stock Android just sucks, can’t see myself ever going back to it unless I absolutely had to. Props to you for making it work.
It’s also a system app on OnePlus as well (at least it is on my US OnePlus 9 pro)
Try the Universal Android Debloater. You can also use it to remove a lot of other pre-installed crap from your phone. Debloating improves your storage, battery consumption and your privacy.
Our TV has a YT app on it and I never sign in. I have way better experience with it because it randomly suggests stuff that the algorithm would probably think isn’t something I like and yet it TOTALLY is something I like.
This is the problem with all these attempts at AI. They don’t have the capacity to be actually random when they’re using large databases of accumulated input from us.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the non logged in version I’m experiencing is also constrained by my prior choices, but it seems like the data they’re holding is much smaller which allows for better chances at a random find.
Plus my kids get on there and search for their weird gamer streamer blah blah BS too which I’m sure really throws a curve ball.
Algorithms ≠ Artificial Intelligence
Sufficiently advanced technology looks like magic, sufficiently advanced algorithms look like artificial intelligence.
Oh, algorithms that write algorithms that write algorithms… they’re still algorithms.
I use NewPipe and what has helped me the most is not having to deal w/ the recommendation algorithm.
I reset my subscriptions to only be the most relevant feeds from YouTube and then I only check the subscription page. I’ve consciously curated the feed to be more productive and I’m much less likely to get distracted when watching videos
I’m pretty sure I see fewer ads since I don’t have a deep history for YT to mine / target.
I used normal FF with ublock. I never see ads at all. Can you add extensions to Firefox Focus?
normal FF with ublock
This is the way (assuming you mean Ublock Origin, which I understand is superior to just-plain Ublock.) I also use SponsorBlock.
I do mean Ublock Origin, just a bit lazy in typing.
I have sponsor block on the pc and do need to add it to mobile. (that lazyness kicking in again as it has only been a few weeks that you could add it)
Do you have a uBlock setting recommendation for me?
I have made no changes to the default settings and it works fine for me.,
If anyone else has tweaks they use, please reply to @perishthethought.
Thanks - I just checked, I’m using FF on my desktop, and my android browser, both have uBlock enabled and I still see ads sometimes on youtube.com. I would be interested in changing hat for sure.
Do you have ublock or ublock origin?
ublock origin is what I use. I also made no changes to the defaults on pc and see no adds on youtube there as well.
uBlock Origin in both desktop and mobile.
Then not sure why you are seeing ads.
Are the in video sponsor pieces? As sponsor block is quite good at skipping them in most case.
YouTube is playing cat and mouse with the adblockers, so recently it is sometimes able to show you ads even if you have uBlock Origin enabled. Only reliable way to completely get rid of the ads is to go through a Piped or Invidious instance, or the NewPipe app on Android.
Can you add extensions to Firefox Focus?
Just tried it, you can’t.
Thanks for checking.
Then I would suggest that if the OP wants to view youtube on mobile they go with normal FF and ublock.
It sounds like Firefox Focus just has a few privacy extensions rolled in but still allows adds.
Unfortunately, no. And AFAIK, we can’t have multiple profiles on the full Firefox web browser. (I would need 2 profiles since for some sites, I still want to keep cookies/history around longer, at least I think that makes sense)
LibreTube is the way to go.
I used to use the YT app before migration to Revanced. The main advantages I’ve experienced so far: -No ads -Defaults to auto skip video intros and sponsorships -Ability to disable shorts
Personally disabling shorts was the selling point for me, I’d find myself clicking one on an interesting topic then getting sucked in and distracted from the original video.
YouTube Revanced or Revanced Extended is also a must just for the sheer QoL improvements.
As a Pixel user, I don’t appear to have the option of uninstalling YouTube. Imagine that.
As a pixel user, you are able to install graphene OS!
Yeah, Graphene is the way to go.
Try the Universal Android Debloater. Or switch to GrapheneOS.
I don’t understand people not wanting recommandations based on ehat they watch… I discovered so much great channel because of it
For me it’s because I don’t use YouTube for that. I don’t watch channels or personalities. If I go to YouTube, I’m there searching for something specific.
And when I find the video that shows me how to open my key fob to replace the battery, I’m not interested in a series of key fob videos. If I watch a video related to a news story, I’m not interested in all the reaction videos or analyses by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. I’m most certainly not interested in any other video with a thumbnail of someone with their mouth agape at something
I don’t want it suggesting more of them, and I certainly don’t want it automatically advancing to some other video after it’s done. All I want is a video host that plays the videos I asked to watch. Everything else is just a reminder that the kind of videos they push are the exact kinds of videos I don’t want to watch.
They get in the way, they draw attention to the wrong things, and they encourage people to make more of the kinds of videos that get in the way of finding the actual useful information
My issue was just that YT puts me in a bubble where it thinks I want to be. But then you only see videos like the ones you’ve been watching - a bubble. Imo, it’s better to see lots of different videos.
