Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

1984@lemmy.today to Technology@lemmy.world – 159 points – Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube
popsci.com

I'm using this all the time myself. There is no login to YouTube required and it supports adding subscriptions and doing everything important you can do on YouTube.

And the best part is no ads whatsoever.

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Keep it quiet with the Freetube articles, I don't want it gone lol.

Youtube/google/alphabet are almost certainly aware it exists already. The only real risk is too many people switching to it.

But even then there isn't much they can do to stop it's use. They can't tighten up or remove their api, but then page scraping will take over. They can obfuscation their page, but that will not work forever.

It's a cat and mouse game that is impossible to win for them.

You know the same thing was said with Beeper's imessage on Android pytorch success. "Apple won't be able to change this. They'd have to change the very nature of imessage itself to block this!" And then, two days later it was blocked completely so, as much as I would hope Google couldn't block FreeTube, don't expect such huge successes without tempering expectation.

Am I the only one that hates third-party clients for Desktop? They all have terrible UI and UX. Firefox + UBlock + Youtube is the way to go. For the phone it's NewPipe or Grayjay.

Don't forget about Enhancer for YouTube, SponsorBlock, and DeArrow! They're all a must-have for desktop YT.

Personally I still use the Firefox + uBlock + SponsorBlock + YouTube combo on my phone too. Maybe if I watched more YouTube on my phone it'd be worth figuring out an app with a better mobile UI, but I like that it's a consistent experience anywhere I watch from.

LOL the only terrible UI is the YouTube one. I dunno how people deal with all the garbage content and vertical videos that are relentlessly crammed down your throat. Not to mention the completely fucked search function.

I used to think it is redundant too, but now see it as a quality-of-life difference. Because I can track my subscriptions and watch history, as well as have playlists. That is a massive improvement over folders of bookmarks.

Firefox + UBlock + Youtube is the way to go.

Unless you don't like Google tracking everything you watch on youtube, that is.

Revanced is great for mobile

ReVanced isn't a third-party client though. It's patches applied to the official client.

Revanced app had the superior UI/UX.

Not because if taste, but because it is the YouTube UI that then allows you to add and remove stuff from the UI, getting away from all the user-hostile stuff. If you want to.

I use Firefox with ublock on desktop, works like a charm. My favourite on android is YouTube revanced

I use the same combo on my phone without any issues or ads. Why use a client on the phone?

For me, Newpipe is faster. Plus I can track my subscriptions, playlists and watch history.

i constantly gotta swap invidious instances because youtube is being relentless in their war against invidious.

but the ui is awesome and I use it every day.

apparently freetube automatically uses a new invidious instance every time it starts up.

It seems to be at random, and many of the instances don't work correctly. You're better off finding one that does, and setting it as default.

Or host your own :) less likely to be blocked by Google if it's just you using it.

Invidious is awesome, if possible, self hosting one in docker is great and keeps it up to date

How do I go about doing that (finding a good one and setting it up)? Its been a month that either the video loads or it doesn't and when it does work it is extremely slow to the point I can't watch on 1080p.

honestly I keep a tab open with the list of invidious instances open. because every day I usually have to change the instance. or swap it around.

invidious is fighting youtube very hard, but youtube is fighting back. so its difficult to keep up with.

i would keep an eye on the invidious instances list. and change to a different one if need be.

The best part about FreeTube unlike other Third-Party clients is that it retains a better YouTube-like suggestions system for any videos you wanna watch next. Discoverability is still a very important thing for me

How does it do it better that yt?

That's not what they said. They said it's better than other 3rd party clients because it's just like YouTube's suggestions.

My lg tv is jailbroken so I have the ad blocked version of YouTube on it, but I was on my Chromecast with Google tv yesterday and decided to go back to the regular YouTube app since I was there.

I was watching a video of 20 minutes in length, and got one 30 second ad at the start; ok fine.

After 4 minutes, they decided to show me a 50 second unskippable ad.

I backed out of the video, and deleted the regular app.

Fuck Google.

How do you jb LG tv?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hsqYOoiT12Y

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zYoesrUsIj8

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mwU99mPRHZk

https://old.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/sa78sv/your_lg_webos_smart_tv_can_now_be_jailbroken/

O blocked my LG TV from Internet long time ago, since I only needed a dump TV screen anyway

😄maybe there is a fun experiment in my near future

Doesn't sound like you have anything to lose, and you might gain a new skill! Go for it!

SmartTube beta on Android TV is fanfuckingtastic.

Ive been using it for years now and holy shit. Even if it doesnt blocked ads and even youtubers own ads, the app itself is FAR superior than anything what this vanilla youtube app is supposed to be.

Even if it doesnt blocked ads and even youtubers own ads

You mean even if it didn't? Because it definitely DOES and you're absolutely right about the rest

Yes thats what i mean. Even if it didnt then still the app is SUPERIOR IN EVERY WAY than vanilla youtube. But it does block everything. Its a godsend.

Even just having Sponsorblock built-in changed my life!!

I love this app and would use it even if it didn't block ads. The user experience is just so much better than the regular YouTube TV app. I've sent a few donations to the developer to thank them for their work.

Unfortunately it doesn't work without a login. Also the search function stopped working entirely for me recently.

Can it be used on a "normal" android phone or just android tv?

It's a no for phones, set top (android) boxes only. My friend has had success running it on Windows 11 and casting to his TV.

Huh? I run SmartTube beta on my phone. I don't recall having to do anything "magic" to get it working.

I prefer NewPipe/Tubular so much that I don't even use my desktop for YouTube anymore.

i would like to say I prefer Newpipe, but those guys have a pretty annoying bug that's been going on for years now and it's still not been fixed.

If you watch a video and then go back to a list and scroll up to the top, the app crashes.

NewPipe stopped working for me some time ago, switched over to rvx which seems to work fine.

It stops working occasionally but they release fixed versions pretty fast.

Try pipepipe, they update more often than OG newpipe/tubular

Yt in browser (ff+UBO) plays less than a minute, then stops. Freetube works. I hate google.

I use ff+uBO, and all works, never saw an ad. I am also using a VPN that blocks/filter ads, that might help.

For some reason like recommendation algorithm, I still use youtube premium.

How is that different from the free version in a browser with Ublock Origin?

If you use premium, the creators still get paid by YouTube for your views. If you use an ad blocker, they don't get any money from your views.

When you see an ad on YouTube, the creator gets 55% of the revenue and YouTube gets the remaining 45%.

If I want to support the creator, I would rather donate directly or subscribe to the person's Patreon. YT Premium just gives no extra features for Youtube itself so could not justify paying.

For some reason I doubt that's a common practice with people hellbent on not seeing ads and not paying for the service.

Color me surprised if I'm wrong about that.

I use youtube music everyday as well as downloading videos on my phone to play without wifi. So maybe I do use some premium features, which may make me biased.

I don't subscribe to anyone, but have donated to the authors I like, just as I did to the FOSS projects I use. One blogger even has a site where you can tie your donation to a specific video of his.

And for Youtube Music - RiMusic does just what you described but does not require a Google account or a recurring payment.

I guess I have to ask the same question about freetube.

Oh shit, I just made the switch and I'm liking it. I just "favourite" things from my sub feed in one small window, and watch in the other, and it autoplays (if I want) so I can just start doing shit while the background vids keep playing. Honestly kinda more convienient than youtubes gui. It has sponsorblock built in too, which is nice

I enjoy the Android app. Wish the ui was a bit better tho, hard to navigate sometimes

I use Newpipe on android, you can try that. Install it using f-droid.

Tubular is what I've been using since its a fork of newpipe with sponsorblock. Just have had issues with it crashing radomly. Also used grayjay, revanced, libretube and probably others

I agree; between it and Tubular, YouTube is usable again.

That said, someone pointed out that higher resolutions are not viewable on FreeTube. I hadn't noticed this until they mentioned it, and now I notice it constantly. I don't know why, but it's demonstratable: find a 4k video on Tubular, and open the same video on FreeTube, and only lower resolution versions are available.

Have been using it a while since the browser fiasco. It's awesome but the workflow has a few niggles:

I'd love a theater mode that uses the full width of the window but still allow the title and comments below. No sidebar or scrollbar besides the video, more like MPV.

Also LibRedirect isn't perfect with embedded videos. I'd just like to have a link I can click so it opens in FreeTube.

And links from the browser are always opened in the first active window instead of opening a new window.

I wish it didn't use Electron.

Since they are integrating a web browser in the app, it kind of make sense here actually. For code editors though, not great...

Since they are integrating a web browser in the app,

You can do this in a better way by using something like Photino or Tauri that uses the OS' native browser engine. There's no need to bundle a browser with every app (like Electron does).

Since they are integrating a web browser in the app

are they, though? I thought they just grab whatever data Invidious API fetches and display it with their method of choice, similar to how mobile clients for Invidious and Piped work. PlasmaTube manages to do similar thing without becoming a single purpose web browser.

The recommendation algorithm is the reason I use YouTube. Well over half of the videos I'm watching are from channels I'm not even subscribed to. Ads can be blocked as always.

The recommendation algorithm is the reason I use YouTube.

This is an unpopular opinion on Lemmy (since it means Google has to track you) but I agree. I've discovered so many great channels, both small and large, through YouTube recommendations.

I tried it there but my browser works better is my first impression, I'm using thorium with Ublock, YouTube enhanced and some other addons.

Did honestly just give this a test but I kept getting videos just freezing up for no reason.

YouTube recently rolled out changes that break these third party apps causing a 503 error. Other apps have patched this issue.

No Android version of it yet, eh? Damn.

ETA: I previously tried Vanced, but it didn't work correctly.

Try GrayJay, works great in my experience and has all the stuff (background play, no ads, downloads, etc). One issue I had with ReVanced was casting didn't always work for me, GrayJay seems to be able to cast to my shield without missing a beat.

yeah I agree! My wife would hear bitchin me if we would watch something on her iphone as i would constantly point out the fucking ads.. I use in on my Fedora but sometimes (like once a month) I have a problem with the invidous instances. I wish there would be something similar to use on android, bu fortunately with Firefox& SponsorBlock it seems to block most of them...

as i would constantly point out the fucking ads.

Why would you do this?

Also, there are apps for invidious on Android.

youtube is cancer

As someone who's survived ACTUAL cancer, and spent a year of my life dealing with this shit, and dealing with the aftermath of it now, having to get a colonoscopy this friday as part of my checkups, you can fuck right off with your casual usage of that word.

Lets slice open your chest, put a medical port in a surgury where you're still awake, and still somewhat feel whats happening because thats how they do it with todays medical insurance. Thats what we get in America. Lets have you on chemotherapy for a year so you're so out of it and so physically weak that you can't wash your own dishes. You have to ask a friend to pull the suction cup drain so the water in the sink can drain so you're able to individually lift dish.

Lets have the government tell you that cancer doesn't qualify you for disability, so you end up with $0 income for 9 months, and expected to pay rent.

Lets have bus drivers roll their eyes at you for being 40 years old, and not able to lift groceries that aren't that heavy. Made to feel like an elderly person, but people treat you like an asshole for wasting their time.

Lets have you go through that, and tell me again how youtube is cancer.

Damn. That's brutal.

I've used that phrase myself in the past, and never thought of this, despite having done hospice care. Thanks for the perspective. That's serious, you made me rethink things.

"X is cancer", "X spreads like cancer", "X is cancerous" are so incredibly common phrases. Are they generally considered inappropriate?

"Spreads like cancer" not so much to me. "Is cancerous" I would say to avoid saying, unless it legitimately IS a risk for cancer.

I was told that being in a brick building, is not a threat for cancer. However, living in a brick home after say 40 years, actually CAN be a risk for cancer. Which not a lot of people would know. So I think keeping "is cancerous" to an actual legitimate basis is a good idea to spread actual good information. Because if I said "brick houses are cancerous", that sounds like an exaggeration, but in the long run it's true.

"Is cancer" really just depends on how casually its being used. Something that causes you a mild inconvienence? Yeah, I'd find that offensive. But using it towards something that may not be literal cancer, but still poses a physical harm, I find less offensive. Like saying "Nestle is a cancer on this planet". I wouldn't find that offensive, because Nestle uses literal slavery, while draining the planet of natural resources, and giving the middle finger to everyone else. Yeah, THAT can be called a cancer. But youtube? Put on an adblock, move on with your day.

My guy, I'm sorry to hear about your situation, but it's just an expression.

I'm sorry to read you were treated so poorly during your treatment. I hope you are in a better situation, if not now then in the near future.

Well, I brought up the worst parts because it emphasises the harsh realities yoj go through with that.

But you'll notice I didn't speak ill of the actual treatment plan. The people I would see every 2 weeks. I'd be brought into this room, and hooked up to this machine, and the thing would take 6 hours every time. But the nurses were nice. They took care of anything they could. The one time my body rejected the chemo, the head nurse fixed things before I knew what was happening. My skin had turned lobster red, and was in the process of poisoning itself to shut down the foreign chemo drugs. This being after 3 months of treatment. I just felt my skin a little warm, and I felt dizzy. But unrelated to the cancer, I grew up being told never to ask for help. Always tough it out. Which is TERRIBLE advice. If there are any new dads out there, don't teach your kids they shouldn't get help when they need it.

So I'm sitting in the chair, knowing I'm burning, knowing I feel dizzy, and not sure if that's bad enough to warrant asking for help. I'm looking at the floor, thinking "It'll pass.....just let it pass".

And the head nurse sees me, rushes over, and starts adjusting the chemo pump. She says (not asks, says), "You're feeling hot right now, and you shouldn't stand. You're dizzy, and you have no leg strength. You will fall on your face if you try. You're having a chemical reaction, and this dosage has become too strong. We'll lower the dosage."

All of this, without me trying to bring attention to myself. I didn't want to worry her, when so many others in that room are elderly. I figured I'll be fine.

What I didn't know is that if left untreated like that, your body will eventually go into shock. From there you could pass out. You could have a heart issue. You could have a seizure. It all depends on how your body tries to react. And she told me, in no uncertain terms, that if I ever feel somethkng is odd, to ALWAYS speak up. They'd rather have 100 false alarms than 1 ignored real issue. Which was total culture shock for me. I'm used to being ignored.

And my family were there for me too. Financially especially. I had no income. So they paid my rent. For a year. I tried to pay my sister back for a portion of what she paid in rent, and she wouldn't take it.

So, yeah, my message highlighted the worst parts of the experience. But I had some people looking out for me too.

You've been through a fair bit! Sounds like you have built a strong perspective. Your family sounds rather loving.

completely agree. not sure what the downvotes are for.

I would like Freetube 100x more if it had a web UI instead of a non-browser interface. A web UI with a companion extension to automatically redirect YT video links to it could be so seamless.

If it's hosting a server on the local network that would also provide a perfect solution to not having any way for view history or settings to automatically sync between different devices.

I'd argue that Brave is the best way. The adblock is seamless and requires no add-ons, and you retain the full functionality of the site.