Smartest thing I've done this month: Disable the YouTube app

perishthethought@lemm.ee to Android@lemmy.world – 239 points –

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.

132

You are viewing a single comment
View all comments

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!

4 more...

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.

What "own stuff" can't you manage? Do you mean your own channel's videos? Or do you mean your account's subscribed channels?

1 more...

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

5 more...