Top Extensions to Make YouTube Bearable

oct_opus@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 1463 points –

Hello fellow, lemmings, lemmur !

If you are like me, you probably spend a lot of time on YouTube, more than you want to admit.

I remember the days when videos had stars instead of thumbs up or down, and when YouTube had, let's say, more mature content on it.

Now the site has a lot of functionalitys that are great for Google, but that I don't need nor want.

So, to improve the enjoyment of the platform, I present to you the ultimate extension survival kit for YouTube:

  1. uBlock Origin: (or your favorite ad-blocker) This is an absolute must-have. It's a good ad-blocker that not only blocks YouTube ads but also works across all websites. It's lightweight, efficient, and open-source. Say goodbye to ads.
  2. SponsorBlock: Skip over the sponsored segments of videos. It's a community-driven project, with users submitting the timestamps of sponsored content. You can even customize it to skip over different types of segments like intros, outros, and more.
  3. Return YouTube Dislike: Since YouTube removed the dislike count, it's been harder to gauge the quality of videos. This extension brings back the dislike count.
  4. DeArrow: Extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails. It removes click-bait titles and thumbnails providing a cleaner Youtube.
  5. YouTube Shorts Block: If you're not a fan of shorts, this extension is for you. It plays the Youtube shorts video as if it were a normal video and hides the "shorts" tab from the left menu. Firefox Link Chrome Link
  6. Enhancer for YouTube: Allows you to add theming options, auto-HD, keyboard shortcuts and more.

These are the extensions I use. Don't hesitate to suggest more. I will edit the post accordingly.

It's not lost on me that these extensions remove many things that were not initially a problem on YouTube but that either arose because of the monetary incentive of Google handling the website, Youtubers trying to make money, or as countermeasures to problems that were taken care of by a previous extension. This kind of feels like an arms race…

Edit 1: Changed the YouTube Shorts Block description and added Enhancer for YouTube

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Reminder to all, Firefox on Android can use UBlock Origin. It's an easy setup, no more ads.

I'll add that NewPipe is a great app, has a fork to support sponsorblock and can mix your YouTube subscription with other sources (eg. PeerTube), which could allow for a smooth transition.

You have to be willing to loose your personalized suggestions page, but when it comes to me it helped a lot to get less addicted.

Losing personalized suggestions was a plus for me, since youtube is so thrown off by one video and even when it recommends channels that fit into the genre you like it doesn't seem to be able to understand why it is that you like certain channels.

For instance, video games. It should know not to recommend channels that don't have really loud youtubers who are screaming at me to smash the like button and have the most obnoxious thumbnails. But, it just sees that I like games. And then it is horrible for spoilers where I might watch a video for a game review I'm interested in then next it does is start filling my feed with spoiler content from that video.

I can do without it.

Yeah it's the same for me. When I watch Youtube on my computer I often feel like I wasted a lot of time. On my phone I can only pick high quality content from the curated list of creators that I've maintained over the years, and it is a much better experience.

If you are already an android user. It's definitely worth putting I some time to check out ReVanced on github.

They are the spiritual successor to Vanced and you use the ReVanced manager to patch your own youtube APK (and many more apks.)

For non Firefox users, use kiwi browsers for chrome extensions or revanced

For non Firefox users, use kiwi browsers for chrome extensions or revanced

And, you can add sponsorblock using beta, nightly or fennec f-droid and custom list of addon.

Use youtube revanced with microg on non rooted phones, it comes with all the premium and unique features....

I'm in the Newpipe bandwagon. NewPipe has been the best way for accessing YouTube for a long time on Android. It's available in f-droid. Another plus on my book. I'm kinda not so much into installing a random apk for revanced.

Revanced as better features and let's you sign in.

I'm sure it does. I don't really need sign in though. YouTube is the last place where I want to have comment interaction. And Newpipe do have local playlist and bookmark options which I need.

With revanced you just get the APK from GitHub and patch the appropriate version of the official YouTube APK.

I'll chime in with my vote for NewPipe as well. It's served me very well, and does so much.

NewPipe is great, it gets around the main issue with Piped/Invidious instances (that being rate limiting by Google). I've been using it for years and it's been great all this time.

Newpipe, you mean that app that displays an annoying "GURU MEDIDATION" error for 30% of videos? Try LibreTube, it actually works.

i've never had an issue with newpipe that wasn't fixed by updating to the latest version

I had it installed for years, updated regularly, and ran into those errors too often to recommend it.

It's much more stable that it was in the past. I'd run it on the desktop if I could.

Well I experienced it from time to time when YouTube changes some things. Actually haven't faced it in a long time.

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I used vanced and was very satisfied. Now revanced draws so much power I constantly had to recharge my phone, even when not using YouTube. Hat to uninstall it for this reason.

Did you download a ready apk? If yes, it was malware. Follow the recommended procedure with the manager and patching the original YouTube apk yourself

Do you have a guide or tutorial for this?

Get the manager here, download the youtube apk of the version it recommends, and choose the patches you want. No guide needed

adb to remove google services, fdroid for a firefox browser, revanced manager on github to compile revanced, and once that's done all that's left is to install it. Maybe also export it so that you don't have to rebuild that version again.

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For YouTube Shorts, you can copy this filter into the uBlock My Filters.

That's nice, although somewhat different than what OP linked. I think the filter you linked will completely remove shorts, where the extension OP linked (Youtube Shorts Block) will instead convert shorts into a normal video, despite the misleading name. Although I think the extension has an option to completely block shorts too

Good catch. Thanks for the clarification.

Two things I also like to do is changing my Youtube bookmark to https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions and adding the following two filters to uBlock:

www.youtube.com##.ytp-endscreen-content
www.youtube.com###related

This basically makes it so that I only see videos from channels I'm actually subscribed to, without having any content pushed on me from the algorithm.

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/feed/subscriptions

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

https://odysee.com/ is a descentralized option too.

It has sponsorblock too https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sponsorblock-for-odysee/gdmldddlfnlmipdpobiaibalcbjjpmib

and this extensions help a lot too https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/watch-on-odysee/kofmhmemalhemmpkfjhjfkkhifonoann

Isn't odysee some crypto shit?

Odysee uses the blockchain, yeah, thats why it is descentralized. But you don't have to spend any money in it, unless you want to support a channel.

I don't understand the hate to Cryptos :| I don't see that people hate that their FIAT money is worth less every day because they print money without limit.

If you are an Android user, I highly recommend libretube or pipepipe from f-droid, Izzy, or github repo. No ads. No suggestions. Only what you tell it to show you. Nothing else. And it can download.

Libretube: https://libre-tube.github.io/

pipepipe: https://codeberg.org/NullPointerException/PipePipe

Neat. I usually only watch videos from my PC, but that'll be great way to stock up on a few videos when traveling.

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If you use a script manager (Tampermonkey, Violentmonkey, Greasemonkey, Firemonkey) I can recommend some userscripts:

  1. Tabview for Youtube - condenses comments, description, playlists and chat into a neatly organised sidebar,
  2. YT Resource Unholder - improves how YT handles resources and improves performance,
  3. YT CPU Tamer - more performance improvements,
  4. YT AV1 - forces YT to use AV1 for all videos.

What's the benefit of AV1 on youtube?

Videos encoded with AV1 are smaller and look better on lower bitrates so you save some bandwidth. I noticed it's also a bit less straining on the CPU which is nice if you wanna save some battery juice if you're on a laptop without a dGPU.

If you have constrained CPU power it's better to use HW decoding on the iGPU so you have more headroom.

You can use AV1 but most hardware that's not the latest will only be compatible with VP9 or even AVC1.

I came across Unhook, which lets you remove parts of YouTube that are designed to keep you there.

Changed the YT home page to subscriptions instead of 'the algorithm'.

All I'm wishing for on Android is for NewPipe or LibreTube to let me login to get my suggested front page. On desktop, Sponserblock is awesome, and I've been liking DeArrow.

uBlock Origin is simply a requirement on every single browser and should always be installed. I'd recommend going into the settings and enabling all the extra filters as well.

Use revanced on Android

Is Revanced better now? I remember trying it a year or two ago and it was garbage.

Edit: my issue was that I had downloaded a pre-compiled Revanced YouTube APK which was a pile of shit.

What's the issue you were having with it?

The your I was having with it was that I downloaded a pre-compiled APK. Just compiled my own just now and it works great!

Sounds to me like the older version had issues. Pre-compiled or self probably had nothing to do with it. Now you just have the newer better version that you happened to compile yourself

There's never really been an issue with it. Just a little complicated to set up in the beginning.

Now it's easy to install and it works with MicroG.

What do you mean? Last year, I effectively had to stop using it because Google was testing a new blocking method in the UK - this resulted in constant buffering.

A recent update has resolved this issue, and the app is back to being the best version of YouTube available.

Works well for me, and I've been using it basically since the beginning.

I’d recommend going into the settings and enabling all the extra filters as well.

I'd recommend sticking with the defaults unless you have a specific use case where extra filters are needed. More filters = higher chance of breakage.

Have you tried Clipious. It uses invidious servers and has all these sponsorblock stuff.

I'll give it a try, will it let me access my already existing youtube login with my subscriptions and reccomendations? That's really the only thing im missing

edit: weird, I installed it and choose a public server. I never logged into my YouTube yet it seems to be getting my YouTube recommendations somewhat? Nvm they just seem to be similar stuff to what I watch.

Since it is invidious, there is no chance to log in to your yt account.

  • Pay for youtube premium

^ducks^

Nah, it's worth it. Services like that cost money for a reason. I'm fine paying for a platform like YouTube. I'm just bothered by how they've changed monetization that negativity impacts the people making the content.

I'm impressed! Suggesting paying for YouTube premium on Reddit is a one-way ticket to downvotesville.

I pay for it too, and it's completely worth it considering how much time I spend there every day (including music)..

Not to mention the other day I had to use normal YouTube on someone else's computer and the ads are unbearable.

I'm a revanced user. I'm just curious and had to ask an actual premium user. The youtube app ads are gone and premium features are available.

But how is the experience when dealing with vloggers who keep plugging their sponsors in their video? and the constant like and subscribe adlib reminders of other vloggers?

cause for me, that's one thing that revanced has solved over the premium option of youtube.

Edit: to say it before someone asks. I do pay for other premium streaming platforms, but I am selective, because, you know, my resources aren't infinite.

YouTube premium doesn't change anything about the videos themselves, so you still get the sponsor and like/subscribe plugs.

I understand there are extensions that remove that stuff but I've never tried them as I watch YouTube on many different devices and can't be bothered to tweak each and every one. Also those don't bother me that much and are easy enough to skip.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. It seems that I will stay with revanced for now. Though we'll see what youtube offers in the future.

As another Premium subscriber, at this point I feel a sense of incompleteness if I don't hear about the video's sponsor or like-comment-subscribe.

I'm also selective of what I pay for. YouTube Premium won out against some others. Having YT Music along with it is also nice.

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Honest truth, you go around actually paying a network for their services and everyone loses their minds. There's a Nolan Batman GIF somewhere here...

That’s what I do.

Everyone wants stuff for free and I get that. And I also get the “fuck big corporations” stance kinda…

But these services cost money. So we either pay for it directly (and yes they need to make a profit also - this is capitalism) or we have to watch ads. It’s not really a complicated concept. I hate watching ads and have $11 per month to spare so I pay.

I also pay for premium, so I don't have to worry about ads. But that only covers the first extension on this list. The others are all useful and still not available with premium.

Yeah, I also pay for YouTube Premium (have since it was YouTube Red), and get a ton of value out of it, but I'm still bombarded by all those absurd "Shorts" clogging up my subscriptions feed. I'll have to try the linked extension - I've been meaning to see what's available..

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I would if it was another company than Google but I'm not going to support big tech companies with my money.

Google is tracking people all over the internet, and is one of the richest companies in the world. Now they want to get even more money? Right.

I'm paying for email and search but they are not from big tech.

I had YT premium for a while, and then I just wanted to download some videos (you know, like they advertise you can) and they just didnt allow it. Had to either watch it in the YT app or on youtube.com on my PC. That's not downloading - thats just streaming with less computation for youtube, which helps youtube but not me. What a great 'premium benefit'!

Cancelled my premium right then and there, if they cant provide a feature as simple as just being able to download videos to mp4 or something, thats just misleading. Literally takes seconds to find a third party site or app (NewPipe) that does it.

I paid for youtube premium which not only gets rid of ads, but gives you access to the youtube music app. I got rid of Spotify because of that and end up paying less money for more functionality.

VPN to Turkey, get YouTube Premium for like $2 a month.

If you watch a lot of YouTube and can afford it, it's totally worth it. 👌

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Youtube search fix: This is not a extension but if you save this as a bookmark javascript:location.href=location.href+'&sp=CAASAhAB'; in your browser it can be used to remove youtubes recommended / "people also watched" videos from a search.

To use it, search for something on youtube and then click the bookmark you have made and it will then reload the search page and only show listings for what you searched for and remove youtubes recommended / “people also watched" videos from the search.

javascript:location.href=location.href+‘&sp=CAASAhAB’;

In firefox, you can also add a keyword to this shortcut (e.g.: yt):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&sp=CAASAhAB

Then you can use it from the search bar like yt testing and it will redirect you to this URL (replacing %s with testing):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=testing&sp=CAASAhAB

EDIT: and a fancier option is to use Redirector, Request Control (or similar) to create a redirection from YT searches without the CAASAhAB query param to the one with it.

It's bearable on smartube next if you have an android TV, firestick or similar

My biggest problem with YouTube is they keep giving me videos I've already watched and it seems they wipe them from the watch list very quickly to try and trick you into clicking it again.

I also hate the fact that if I say I'm not interested In something they take no notice and send it to my recommendations again regardless.

I suspect YouTube's blacklist (do not recommend this channel / video) is length-limited. I recently noticed some of the oldest content I banned coming back in recommendations.

Feels like as I add more bans, the oldest ones get released. Really frustrating.

Really need a RES type addon for YouTube to keep a list of channels you want blocked. Really hurts searches too when it's always the same popular channels populating the results because of popularity.

Blocktube let's you block channels completely, even from searches. It also lets you block a few other things like YouTube movies or shorts.

Extension is so awesome. Was satisfying just blocking channels with those open mouthed images or that yelled at the viewer at the intro, which is a lot when it comes to game channels.

It was surprising I actually did not have to go that block crazy. Just blocking like 10 was enough to make search results look normal. Crazy how much the algorithm leads to those few channels dominating the top search results.

Similarly, I've noticed more times recently where I know I've already seen the video years ago, and YouTube doesn't have the red bar under it indicating I've watched some of it.

Yeah, I know it probably happens sometimes, but, this time, there's been a really noticeable uptick.

The most annoying thing is definitely the already watched video recommendation

I love smartube next on my TV more then Youtube revanced on my phone. They should make a smartphone version! (I'm looking for an app where you can login, so not newpipe)

if I say I'm not interested In something they take no notice and send it to my recommendations again regardless.

omg yes fuck this. I constantly get fed entire categories of videos on games which I actively hate; I have never watched a single video for any of them and have said "not interested" to probably 50+ videos, but they still pop up every day.

Fun fact, if you dislike a video, YT just interprets that as "engagement" and sends you and everyone else more videos like it.

Not really. I've purged all Sam Hyde content from my YouTube using the not interested feature.

Probably not the crowd for this but I just use YouTube premium at this point. I used ublock previously to manage some of this but the kicker was ensuring I could watch YT seamlessly on all devices (TV - fire stick, ipad, ios). I know I can setup a pi hole but have been moving last couple years. Perhaps soon once I settle.

Of all the streaming services we subscribe to, our family uses YT Premium the most by a large margin. In terms of hours watched/$ it's easily the best value. And you get YT Music.

You can set up NextDNS, which will block ads across devices and networks. I think the free tier gives you 300k queries a month.

Never done PiHole but I think the result is similar, with less hassle.

Yea. I got Google music way back, it got moved to YouTube music and wrapped with premium. Can't complain about the result

I have every *arr in existence, I don't pay for anything. But I have YT Premium Family. I still use ReVanced for sponsor block and other customization preferences, but I have it for my family so they can be bullshit free on every device.

Perhaps it bears mentioning that DeArrow is developed by the same person as SponsorBlock. That gave me a lot of faith in it right off the bat.

where mr beast addon???

What do you watch that makes his stuff come up? I've never seen any of his videos suggested to me in my life.

NewPipe is more than enough.

The one thing that stops me from using NewPipe is not seeing answers to comments.

It's such an important feature but it's simply missing.

Until that's added I don't think NewPipe will be an option for me.

You can try LibreTube, it has almost all the features of youtube. Only downside is some videos are slow to load, but if you can host your own Piped instance that's solved. It has sponsorblock built in, regular updates, and a better ui imo

Also a shoutout to Libretube. Much better UI and updates quickly. With the downside that it's less reliable

Libretube with my own Piped instance, almost flamless. One line setup with docker, Runs perfectly on a 5$ VPS. I haven't entered youtube in months, there is no reason other that to import suscriptions, channels, etc.

Only problem is for some reason some not-so-popular videos are slow to load on 720p, but load fine in 480p or 1080p. Really weird.

NewPipe is currently doing a big rewrite of the app, so that's probably why development seems stagnant.

Also I have heard of Clipious being good too

Please keep in mind that every extension you install is an attack vector for hackers. Just because an extension does something cool doesn't mean you should install it.

Please stick with the most used extensions, the ones that Mozilla recommends. This is for your safety.

df tube (distraction-free youtube): toggleable options that allow hiding the recommendation feed and featured videos on the homepage, so as to reduce distractions.

To those who allow their free time to be consumed by youtube because they consider it to be a good investment of their time since they're learning new things, please try this. You might realize that Youtube really just is a poisonous social media amongst all the others and that you really don't need the suggestions.

Its funny how the only reason for me to be on the video player screen is to distractedly click on all the destracting links. (I run yt-dlp on a bulk of yt urls)

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Truffle improves the livestream watching experience on YouTube significantly, adding a Twitch-style theatre mode (with chat on the side), BetterTTV emotes, and more.

I almost installed, but the permissions it asks for feels a bit extreme. I'll probably stick to creating my own theatre mode by using the enhancer full window mode with the pop-out chat to the side.

I never Heard of DeArrow thats nice thanks

DeArrow needs lots of permissions to function.

Thankfully, its verry open about the API calls to its database servers

Also, there are some permissions that are less powerful (on purpose) than others due to a more narrow scope. So you need more.

  • edit youtube.com
  • edit youtu.be
  • edit yt music's page

Versus

  • edit every page

That is a long list of things to make the site usable. I wonder if we as the fediverse community can leverage Peertube and eliminate the need for all these blockers.

The problem with that is we need funding in order to attract quality content creators. and at the moment YT has control over that market

Annotations Restored For Youtube is also a really good one, adds back the old styled annotations to old videos that had them, makes old videos a little bit more watchable if they had important info in the annotations

For custom settings during playback and some granular tweaks, the extension enhancer for YouTube might come in handy 👍.
I’ll take a look at DeArrow, looks like a great project thx

DeArrow is a misguided effort. Without it you can identify spammy content at a glance. Without it it's like all gossip tabloids were sold with The New Yorker cover.

You can set its behavior (in the settings) to not replace anything by default. Then, you can add the channels you want to replace in a specific filter.

So if you wanted to see something from, say, Linus Tech Tips, but really don't like their thumbnails and titles, you could add them to the filter without affecting the rest of YouTube.

Just checking that I had the name right. You beat me to it.

Definitely second this extension.

Does this stuff work on mobile?

I use my phone to cast, and/or a google dongle on the TV for Youtube primarily. Almost never from a desktop.... does this work still?

You can get ReVanced which is a modification of the original YouTube app. It has pretty much everything except DeArrow.

https://github.com/revanced/revanced-manager

You'll need a YouTube APK file and it will patch the app directly on your phone, it will also let you select what "patches" you want. So you can customize your YT experience, but it works exactly like the official app in every other way.

On the phone yes, you can get them easily in Iceraven, if you use any of the Firefox for Android forks (Fennec, Mull, etc.) instead, you'd have to add in the extensions list manually to get access to them.
Casting will be unaffected since you're really just telling a YouTube app running on your Chromecast to play a certain video, some Chromecasts allow you to sideload APKs though, so you could install SmartTubeNext on there

Newpipe is a personal favorate, its a verry solid, unified package (no plugin support). Can watch most non DRM yt stuff as well as its own non account subscription system, no plugin support means no dearrow or sponsorblock. But it doesnt even relise that the ads even exist so it doesnt load and play them.

EDIT: dark theme is a thing!

I am currently stuck with a super old ipad3 on ios9.3.6 and the only way I have been able to watch youtube on it is through the edge browser, nothing else seems to work. But the version of edge is so old that there aren't any working extensions. I have jailbroken it with phoenix and installed cydia (both of which suddenly stopped working), but it turns out the cydia app that lets you install older versions of stuff has also been discontinued.

I have never not used some sort of adblocker, I am shocked at how often I have to interact with the device to skip ads. You also have to unfullscreen to be able to skip so sometimes I just let the ads run.

I get that ads keep youtube chugging along but, jesus christ, maybe it shouldn't be chugging along any longer. I was trying to watch a 40 minute video yesterday and there were double ads basically every 6 minutes! I feel the freedom to place ads wherever you want in your own video has really destroyed the youtube experience for those who can't or won't use adblockers.

I recommend a piped instance like piped.video. Website that has adblock and sponsorblock built in so don't need any extensions or apps. You can also import in your playlist if you want a custom feed from a JSON or CSV file.

They are also on the fediverse !piped@feddit.rocks

Thanks for the tip. I am enjoying seeing the piped bot providing links on lemmy. Unfortunately the old browser versions that I was able to install (edge and chrome) do not seem to want to load the site, they also give errors saying the site isn't secure, even though it works fine on my phone. I guess I should be glad I even have the option to watch something on a slightly larger screen.

Ive been yearning for a while a "video or channel for later, go away now. dont show me the same video more than 5 times" plugin

::: spoiler details when I load a video or for the first 5 videos in the recommended section when I press a button, of those not in my subscriptions or whitelist, add the video or whole channel to a blocklist and dont show in any list (home, recommendeds, etc), update lists on open pages to reflect the change :::

Its ment to cull the garbage and get a more inde youtube, I like an artist called Sui uzi but listen to their diskography once and youtube will drive you to listen to the same tracks repeatedly.

Any idea if there's a way to block shorts using PiHole? I mostly consume YouTube on mobile devices (Android and iOS) but would love to get rid of that garbage.

Unfortunately that is very unlikely, as YouTube shorts are served from the same servers as all other content on YouTube, so PiHole can’t tell the difference.

But even for iOS there is uYou+ which can block shorts and I’m sure there will be a similar piece of software for Android.

If there was a way to block Shorts and anything with "Reacts" in the video title, I would jump at the chance

I'll gladly take YouTube Shorts Block. It is by far, to me, the most unnecessary thing I've found on YouTube. So when you watch one of these things, note that you cannot control the volume of them. It's always mute or not mute. They also have a tendency to snap in place when you're between videos and in doing so, will restart the video all over again. It is annoying.

I get it's purpose, but I don't need it in my face.

Google does not like this...

Maybe if they'd stop enshittifying their site trying to strong arm people into buying Premium, and start making the user experience actually bareable for people without ad blockers (I'd happily take a unskippable ad between videos if they'd remove the experience-destroying mid-roll ads), then people wouldn't go through these measures to block ads and modify things in Google-unfavorable ways.

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I love to see all this fantastic innovation but it’s a shame that most of it is confined to desktop/laptop computers. 95% of my YouTube consumption is on my phone, iPad, and Roku. Those platforms just aren’t extensible in the same ways. It’s too bad because I’m least likely to sit at my gaming PC watching videos.

I will mention that if you go premium, ads are removed on all devices.

Vanced used to be the way to go, but the project isn't being maintained anymore.

Instead, I'd recommend ReVanced. It can be pretty simple to setup. All you need is Vanced MicroG, ReVanced Manager, and a download of the recommended version of the YouTube app from APKMirror. Currently, the recommended version is v18.23.35. (ReVanced Manager will tell you what the recommended version is every time you go to patch YouTube.)

Install Vanced MicroG first. Then install and open ReVanced Manager. Open the "Patch" tab, "Select an application", then select "Storage" and navigate to where the YouTube app you downloaded is located. Then "Select patches", making sure to include the MicroG patch. Then select "Patch", then "Install". You're done!

Bonus tip: After the patch process is complete, before you tap "Install", tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right and select "Export" to export the patched APK in case you run into trouble with the installation itself. That way, you don't have to rerun the whole patching process, and you have a backup.

Edit: It seems !revanced@lemmy.world has a guide you can follow, too, in their Master Post.

Points 1, 2, 3 and 5 are included in the Youtube Vanced app. If you're using Apple devices that won't really help you though.

Can you install Android apps on the Roku? SmartTubeNext is amazing on Android TV as it has most of these extensions integrated. On the Nvidia Shield TV is works like a charm.

I have a Shield and would like to try this.

You have to side-load it and then it self-updates. I've used this guide https://techmogulchannel.com/tutorial-how-to-install-smarttubenext-to-nvidia-shield-tv/. Do note that SmartTubeNext doesn't support HDR on the Shield but that's fine. If you really want it, just keep both the official Youtube app and SmartTube and switch if you want to watch something in HDR.

Oh thanks. I've marked this as to look into doing on my Shield. Thanks for the tips!

phone, iPad, and Roku

I use newpipe x sponsorblock on my phone. I have my subscriptions imported and I actually like that I can retain a feed without having to be signed into a google account.

For iPad I got safari with adguard and sponsorblock installed and airplay that to the TV. Does Roku support airplay? So now I get not only blocked ads but segments I want blocked like being asking to like, subscribe, intros, outros, recaps, and sponsored segments.

If you just want to watch youtube on the iPad just use a piped instance which has sponsorblock built in. !piped@feddit.rocks

Also don't forget these two:

  • De-mainstream Youtube
  • Clickbait remover for Youtube

I really like Distraction Free Youtube You can remove the trending tab, shorts, recommendations, comments aka all of the time wasting fluff which really helped me cut back my YouTube usage

In addition to some of the ones listed in OP, I use

  • YouTube Auto Like - automatically likes videos you open them (optionally only when you're subscribed to the channel). If you're on a Chromium browser, Google removed this extension from their web store so you can't install it from there anymore. But you can install it manually if you want by downloading it from the Github repo here.

    I also use the following userscripts:

  • Return Youtube Dislike - Does the same thing as the Return Youtube Dislike extension in the OP

  • Youtube Shorts Redirect - redirects Youtube Shorts to a full watch page, so you can watch them like a regular video.

  • Resize YT To Window Size - resizes the video player so that it fills in the entire dimensions of the browser window and moves video players to the top of the page so you can scroll down to see comments, recommend videos, etc.

  • YouTube CPU Tamer by AnimationFrame - reduces Youtube's CPU usage during video playback. I don't really understand the technical aspects but it's all explained in the description of the userscript. This script IS NOT compatible with SponsorBlock!

    Stuff I'm looking for (if anyone has any recommendations):

  • Remove duplicate videos from a playlist

  • display playlists in a grid layout instead of a list layout

  • block youtube channels i don't like

edit: fixed a formatting mistake

You might be interested in pockettube. Not quite what you asked for but it does allow you to make groups of subscriptions and display those in a grid layout.

Why the hell would anyway want to poison their liked views with an extention that likes every video they watch?

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YouTube Unhook is also great

Yeah, I think this was the add-on that allowed me to remove those cards near the end of the video. I hated those.

I use YouTube Archivist to download channels I want and view them in Jellyfin. There's now a companion app for FF/Chrome to subscribe or download stuff you're interested in from a browser.

@hockeyhippie

@oct_opus

Got a link to the program your using? I had used playon.tv when I got their $40 lifetime license, then they decided people only live 6 years.

So I'm hoping to find a way to link up the meta data for all my already downloaded and keep up with new videos.

(Currently at 30k YouTube recordings)

for quite some time I use newpipe on mobile and freetube on desktop to watch youtube videos... Its not without its problems, but it gets rid of tracking, adds and other nuisance on their sites.

But mostly if I can, I use and support other sites like odysee.com

Isn't odysee shutting down?

I use a browser extension that is called "Comments Sidebar for YouTube". It just puts the comments along the side instead of under the video so I can scroll through them without leaving the video. I think YouTube used to do this? I remember finding this extension to replace that function.

A year ago that would randomly appear for me. It seems they were a/b testing it.

If you want some of these features on mobile Android TV, you've still got options!

For Android TV, there's SmartTubeNext: https://smarttubenext.com/ It includes ad blocking and SponsorBlock. I also think the UX is a bit better than the official YouTube app.

For Android, there's obviously ReVanced: https://revanced.app/

And for iOS there's uYou+ (hasn't been updated in a while): https://github.com/qnblackcat/uYouPlus or iVanced (https://github.com/TherionRO/YouTubeiVanced) they will need AltStore to be installed, and will need to be re-signed with a PC/Mac every week.

You can also use AdGuard on iOS though safari and the SponsorBlock extension in the App Store too, but video quality isn't great.

If you want to avoid resigning with AltStore or using Google services, there's also Yattee for iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1595136629 and Invidious and Piped client!

I don't have an android device so if any of my info is wrong let me know!

Or just use a proper third-party client. You wouldn't use Reddit with a browser, or God forbid, the official app? It's the same with YouTube. Or everything, really.

the app i use on android is NewPipe, it's been really nice

you need to get it from fdroid though or directly from github. google play store does not have it. You will only get ripoffs there that are have the name "NewPipe" but are not it. they are also riddled with ads and whatever crap adware is popular now.

yeah i downloaded the apk directly from their website when the version i got had a ton of ads. i realized it was not the legit one

What would you reccommend?

Newpipe Sponsorblock is an easy recommendation for everyone on Android. Two minutes of installing/configuring and it's just plain good: downloading, background playback, in-video ad skipping etc.

I, myself, convert YouTube channels into podcast feeds and play YouTube videos among my regular podcasts using AntennaPod, but that requires me to host a service.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-resumer/ is one of my favorites. It resumes video where you left.

This is how youtube works for me by default. Why do you need an extension for something that it already does?

It's more accurate, faster and it remembers position "for ever". Even for an example when I am watching 3hour podcast and I misclick and close the browser. Next time I open the video I am on the same exact position as I was before. I never had this experience with vanilla youtube. It's very unrealible. At least this was my experience every time.

Is there a reliable channel blocker addon or front end that let's you keep a list of channels you want blocked. Some channels just keep populating play next or searches when I don't want them to because of how popular the channels are.

Thank you for this, I was able to watch YouTube videos just fine with ublock enabled, but I didn't really know about the YouTube shorts blocker addon. YouTube shorts are just annoying to look at.

Thanks for the helpful list. Running a few of these, I will checkout some of the others!

If you're on Android, Newpipe, from Newpipe.net, is great.

I found out about it when Google delisted it.

Sadly ad blockers will soon stop working on YouTube…. https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/29/23778879/youtube-videos-disabling-ad-blockers-detection

Even Twitch agressive ad-blocker blocking methods can be bypass fairly easily (it’s just not as easy as downloading an adblocker). I have hope for the future of YouTube’s adblocker !

When there is a will there's a way. They underestimate what people on the interwebs are willing to do to watch bad videos without being bothered by even abysmally crappier ads 🤡

I use Firefox as my everyday browser and a Chromium browser for all my Google services.

Those of you that are using YouTube with Firefox, are you concerned about tracking while you're signed into your Google account? Do you notice a decrease in performance while using YouTube on Firefox?

For some reason YouTube is far better on Firefox for me than on Chrome.

I absolutely notice youtube is worse in Firefox, presumably because of uBlock because I didn't have any of these installed (except enhancer) before I saw this post. It's particularly bad on mobile. BUT I think it's still worth it overall top have a better experience.

For older/lower end computers, enhanced-h264ify is a godsend. It blocks youtube from playing VP9 codec which can cause heavy cpu usage on older hardware. It can also block 60fps video as well.

Is there something which alters the algorithm to have less company videos?

Might I add also: Unhook

What does it do?

One thing I use it for, and its the main one for me, is to turn off all suggestions. So that way I get to focus on the channels I subscribed and that's it. This is great if you're concerned with wasting time mindlessly surfing Youtube.

I am loving Darrow, and for some reason I just never bothered adding dislikes but it's great to have them back.

Wondering if anyone knows of a script to get the likes and dislikes onto the video preview page instead of having to click on the video to see it. Would help me get a sense of the videos YouTube is recommending.

Thanks for the tip! Using dearrow has been great so far. I wish I could use it on my iPad too, but I guess now there’s another reason to use my laptop more.

Youtube shorts block is a godsend by the sounds of it, installing now.

You can also easily block them with ublock origin's block element feature :)

I like the part where it'll play as a normal video as well.

Yesssss. Youtube shorts are fine except that it won't let you navigate them like a normal video. I don't understand why they don't wanna have consistant layout between shorts and videos. It's like a separate site

alternatively:

"Blocktube" allows you to just straight up block all shorts

and use slightly more advanced code to block any videos with various parameters (specific words in their title, length, from a certain channel etc)

a lot of youtubers i follow constantly have "podcast" episodes and i dont give a fuck about them, but with blocktube.. its like they dont exist

YouTube Premium feels pretty bearable as is. I'm not really sure what I'd want it to do besides have the option to turn the algorithm on and off. When I leave 5hrs of Bob Ross on for my dog for an afternoon I would prefer that not counted in future pushed content.

Isn’t there an incognito mode for that too? I don’t really use it but I’m certain I’ve seen it.

That said, I canceled premium because I don’t really use it now. Originally paid for it after buying a house and DIYing a lot. Now I’ll stick to the extensions and see if I hang in there.

Yeah that's fine. To each their own, but I basically live on YouTube so for me it's worth it.

I wouldn't mind YouTube Shorts, except it seems that most of them are of such low quality and value. I don't have a TikTok account but I have seen many great TikToks (because they get reposted elsewhere). I have seen comparatively few quality YouTube Shorts.

Vanced. Still works like a charm! Get Vanced Manager from APK Mirror and install.

Please don't. Revanced has been around for well over a year now and is actually maintained. Vanced was abandoned ages ago. Revanced is significantly less buggy, has options to block shorts, and has Sponsorblock built in now.

Official site: https://revanced.app

APK mirror is great for getting the right Youtube APK version to patch with Revanced Manager though. Revanced also supports Youtube Music, pretty much giving you the premium features for free.

Switched to it, root install, total happiness.

Won't most of these get you the warning from youtube? I stopped using YouTube except libretube and newpip sb because of it. I don't want any of my accounts banned.

I won't be using ad blockers in YouTube as they help creaters get paid

Some creators love spamming a million ads in 1 video. Those ones deserve to be blocked. I've added 1 sub to my ignore list (direwolf20) since everyone else wants to add a ridiculous amount of ads.

As Linus Tech Tips pointed out, and many more creators, supporting them on Ko-fi, Patreon, or buying there merch gives them more income then YouTube ads.

Or you could just subscribe to YouTube Premium (same price as Spotify) and get YouTube Music with it.. Also it seems like Google is planning on having a three strike policy on ad blocking.

Firefox + Ublockorigin works against the 3 strike policy. Premium is not flexible for anyone. No one uses Youtube music or anything else that isn’t no ads or downloads. They’re only included to increase the price, and there’s no other options.

I use YT Music. And Premium was always included in the cost even way back in the Google Play Music days. Not sure what you're on about.

I’m glad that premium works for you, but most of the included benefits in premium, most people don’t end up using.

Like the no ads you're talking about? And how do you know what people end up using?

Just because there is people here that don't like the idea here of paying for premium don't mean there is not people who use it..

. No one uses Youtube music or anything else that isn’t no ads or downloads.

Uhm, YouTube Music is with no ads and you can download? Dunno what your point is here really.

Premium is not flexible for anyone.

Uhm, it's flexible for anyone that uses Spotify, it's the same price in one, you get YouTube without ads and YouTube Music in the same price.

Firefox + Ublockorigin works against the 3 strike policy.

I've not tested this, I'm not sure if this is even implemented for most users as it's still in beta testing after what I've heard. So this might not be the case.

Youtube without ads isn't a selling point.

Now if had stuff like returning downvote visibility, ability to group channels, and native sponsorblock and features like skip to highlight that would be a start.

It's not really the selling point for me either, It was a bonus because I got YouTube Music in the mix. Free ads was a bonus at that point.

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is it possible for multiple people to use one youtube premium subscription other than the family plan? we checked the family plan but there's no way we can justify paying for it, far too expensive for us considering all our other expenses

I'm not sure tbh. One thing you could do is have one use it online while the other person using it offline.

But i get that it might be to expensive for a family plan.

I feel like there was an unwritten agreement between extension developers and Google/Youtube. Youtube allowed ad-blocking for those who wanted it, and in exchange, ad-blockers didn't hide that users were blocking ads. By doing this, Youtube would break this agreement. I think there will always be a way around it, but currently, as it's still working, no alternative that I know of has been developed.

Don't think that's really the case tbh. YouTube has allowed this for some time, yes, but they have been blocking this also from time to time. There was a reason why i started to use Unblock Origin in the first place because Adblock plus i think it was stopped working.

But a year or two ago I tried YouTube Premium for free for a month and ended up canceling Spotify and only using this now. The fact of the matter is that Google is losing loads of cash because people are blocking the ads.

I'm not pointing fingers to anyone here, I myself have used ad blocking for years, but when the price was right I jumped ship from Spotify and became a premium subscriber at YouTube.

I'm tempted, but I've been using Spotify so long it's hard to make a change. I should look into it again though.

It sucks you got downvoted so much. It's a legitimate point, and it's unsustainable for YouTube to keep hosting so much content if people aren't subscribing and aren't viewing ads.

Thanks for a constructive comment! I would say go for it. You can import playlists. I don't think there is a native way but it might be by now.

I actually think the mixes that Youtube Music makes for you are much better than what Spotify gives you. But then again Google has loads of more data points on us.

You can get a free month I think that's how I got into it.

Cheers, I might give it a go next time they offer me the free trial. I'm definitely not adverse to paying for ad-free access 😊

It's worth it IMO. You get it for the same price that you pay for Spotify and get ad free Youtube + music. IMO that's bigger value.

Hope you enjoy it if you end up trying it out.

Adblock plus still works and very well too. Also, widening the ad situation was what got me to use it. I was ok watching one or two ads every now and then but I‘m not gonna be looking at 20 minute unskippable ads (thats when I said its enough). As some posts say, the ad driven internet is dying and rightfully so. Looking into peertube atm and liking what I see. All the streaming services need to get their stuff together and make a unified model: you wanna watch disney, disney gets a portion of your fee, walking dead? Netflix of whoever and so on. At least thats how I think it would be fair. Like a cable subscription and not half of your rent just to watch all the stuff.

20 minutes!?! Is that a thing? That is nuts!

That is absolutely a real thing. Sometimes, if you watch a video of a couple hours it puts huge prerolls in front and its one thing if they are skippable (because who wants 20 mins of ads anyway?) but when they became unskippable is when I pulled the trigger.

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