YouTube Enhancement Megathread: Tools and Extensions for All Devices

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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/11652690

Hello, Lemmies,

If you're as addicted to YouTube as I am, you'll understand the countless hours we've all spent on the platform. Nowadays, YouTube has transformed into something quite different, with features that serve the mighty Google but may not be exactly what we're looking for. I've got just the thing for you - YouTube Tools/Extension!!

Android:

  1. ReVanced - It's provides additional features and customization options via patches. (There are many tutorials available for building an custom APK)

  2. ReVanced Extended - It's the same as OG ReVanced, but it provides additional extra patches.

  3. NewPipe - The lightweight YouTube experience for Android

  4. NewPipe Extended - A fork of NewPipe with SponsorBlock and Return YouTube Dislike functionality.

iOS:

  1. uYou+ - uYou+ is a modified version of uYou with additional features and mainly made for non jailbroken users!

  2. uYou+ Extra - It's the same as uYou+, but it provides additional extra features.

  3. YouTube Reborn - It's LillieH1000’s YouTube Reborn but, this fork does some improvements.

  4. YouTube Reborn Plus - LillieH1000’s YouTube Reborn but with even more features!

Desktop/PC:

  1. FreeTube - FreeTube is a YouTube client for Windows, Mac, and Linux built around using YouTube more privately.

YT Frontend:

  1. Invidious - Invidious is an open source alternative front-end to YouTube.

  2. Piped Video - An open-source alternative frontend for YouTube which is efficient by design.

  3. Libretube - An alternative frontend for YouTube, for Android.

This is a highly popular YouTube frontend, but there's even more to discover here LibRedirect also it's a web extension that redirects YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and other websites to alternative privacy friendly frontends.

Extensions:

  1. uBlock Origin - Free, open-source ad content blocker.

Currently, there's an annoying popup problem, but don't worry, you can resolve it with these simple steps.[1], [2], also checkout uBlock subreddit.

  1. Return YouTube Dislike -It's an open-source extension that returns the YouTube dislike count.

  2. SponsorBlock - Easily skip YouTube video sponsors. When you visit a YouTube video, the extension will check the database for reported sponsors and automatically skip known sponsors. You can also report sponsors in videos.

  3. Enhancer for YouTube - Take control of YouTube and boost your user experience! Chrome Web Store | Edge Add-ons

  4. BlockTube - It allows you to block specific channels and videos that you don't wish to see or get recommended with. Chrome Web Store | Firefox Add-ons

  5. DeArrow - DeArrow is an open source browser extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails on YouTube. The goal is to make titles accurate and reduce sensationalism. No more arrows, ridiculous faces, and no more clickbait.

  6. Unhook - Hide YouTube related videos, comments, shorts tab, suggestions wall, homepage recommendations, trending, and other distractions.

  7. RemoveAdblockThing - Removes The "Ad blocker are not allowed on Youtube"

Extra:

  1. PocketTube - Youtube Subscription Manager, The best way to group your subscriptions.

  2. YouT-ube - Add a - after the t in youtube, it's redirect to embed video type format to bypass YouTube's non-skippable ads.

  3. Video Bypass - Watch YouTube videos locally by clicking a button.

Besides these, there are plenty more tools/extensions and user scripts on Greasy Fork and Tampermonkey. If you discover any new and useful ones, feel free to drop a comment.

Thanks for reading.

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Shutout to my dear friend youtube-dl. Perfect tool if you want to download videos, especially if downloading large amounts of videos at once. It can take full playlists or channels or just txt file with list of videos

Easily skip YouTube video sponsors

Not just sponsors.

1000125508

This is from the revanced app. I think there's even more categories in the browser extension.

Vinegar for iOS is worth adding to this list.

I use vinegar on MacOs as well. Just yesterday started getting popups on YT about adblockers. Maybe I need to update….

Same. To be expected. It’s never going to be stable for long as Google is actively trying to break it.

That's a great list, you could probably add yt-dlp for those who want to download and/or convert on their desktops (on Android Newpipe dose a great job for that) but in terms of noteworthy frontends and clients the list looks very comolete to me!

Oh and Smart Tube next, that's what I use on my Android TV and it even has Sponsorblock!

There's also TubeArchivist which is sort of like a self hosted YouTube. It can pull videos automatically from channels you subscribe to and download them through yt-dlp and has some organisational capabilities too

Sounds like one of Youtube predecessors: Miro. Cool!

Grayjay from Louis Rossman's company is really good - you can even log in with youtube etc. It looks amazing. It looks like a Tachiyomi for Video and Livestreaming!!! You can add other sources.

It's nice, but I wish it had sponsorblock support, though I'm not sure if it's something they'll add.

The main difference is whether they can be used with an account or not

I think uBO on Firefox is enough, but you need to remove other extensions as they might block thing on youtube, thus being detected.

I read this morning that return dislike no longer works, apparently YouTube changed something in the backend. Might want to verify that and potentially remove it from the list for now

v3.0.0.11 check for updates and match this version! It's already fixed i checked!

Been meaning to look into Libretube for a while now, thanks for the links

Ah, right, DeArrow, that was its name.

DeArrow note: you have to request free access and wait until you’re approved

What extras does Revanced Extended provide? And is I just an additional repo?

I exclusively use Video Lite on iOS and would wholeheartedly recommend it. A big bonus is it’s on the App Store.

Also for Android TV I can’t recommend SmartTube enough.

So Libretube says I don't need a youtube account, but can I use one? Or will that screw it up?

LibreTube is a piped (youtube frontend) frontend, so you need a piped account on the instance (server) you want to use

Thank you for the extensions list, (especially RemoveAdblockThing) but did you have to call us lemmies?

What’s wrong with lemmies lol