18 ms·

ReVanced

345 points by Gadiguibou 5y ago

infinityio 5y ago
Looks like their patches repo is public - I wonder if that'll lead the the adblocking technique being patched out quickly by Google? Either way happy to see this app revived, even as a premium subscriber - it provides functionality that makes YouTube much nicer to use
- idealmedtech 5y ago
  Interestingly, it's not the patches repo which contains the actual patches, it's the _integrations_ repo: https://github.com/ReVancedTeam/revanced-integrations/blob/main/app/src/main/java/fi/razerman/youtube/XAdRemover.java https://github.com/ReVancedTeam/revanced-integrations/blob/m...
- ushakov 5y ago
  i'm confident Google can't patch this without breaking their own app
  - d82nsjk9 5y ago
    why?
    - ajsnigrutin 5y ago
      (Re)Vanced is an app, dealing with googles backend. They can either change the youtube app, to break Vanced, but this can be mitigated by not upgrading the youtube app, until there are patches for the new version,... or they can change the backend, thus breaking all the older youtube clients, making everyone upgrade their clients "now", which is a pain in the ass for many people.
      - genera1 5y ago
        For many devices it wouldn't be "pain in the ass", it would be straight up impossible. There are millions of devices, like smart TVs, that are out of support and don't receive updates, substantially changing API would break them. It might happen at some point, but it would piss off many people.
        ajsnigrutin 5y ago
        Yes, because google always cares about not pissing off people and they never shut down old services... /s of course
      - 3np 5y ago
        What I've seen is reducing quality available for older versions/protocols - so yeah, it will stay play but you won't get the highest bitrates without upgrading.
mach1ne 5y ago
At least they didn't make the copyright mistakes this time. Perhaps it would be better if this version of Vanced stayed difficult to install to avoid spreading it too wide.
- gruez 5y ago
  >At least they didn't make the copyright mistakes this time more like, trademark mistakes. Patching and redistributing a proprietary app most definitely violates copyrights.
  - l-lousy 5y ago
    Google didn’t do anything until Vanced tried to release an NFT and profit off the app
    - LosWochosWeek 5y ago
      How can people actually believe that? Sure, a 'deleted-an-hour-after-posting' tweet is what made Google muster up all their lawyers to take down an app that millions used to circumvent paying for YouTube Premium and/or watch ads. It was a stupid coincident. Google would've killed Vanced sooner or later.
      - throwaway64643 5y ago
        When a narrative fits one's belief, they won't stop to question its validity.
  - lb_ 5y ago
    > redistributing a proprietary app Revanced patches the locally installed version, so hopefully that means they'll be in the clear
- moondev 5y ago
  > Not affiliated with Vanced team. I wonder if the original "vanced" can now file a dispute over this project's name?
hohoemi8 5y ago
What did Google expect? If they take this one down another will appear to take its place, and so on.
- sofixa 5y ago
  There are already alternatives out there (like New Pipe). Vanced was taken down because they tried to monetise it via an NFT which crossed a line.
  - Z_I_F_F 5y ago
    The NFT had nothing to do with the takedown. According to the Vanced team, it was taken down because the logo they used was too similar to the official one.
    - sofixa 5y ago
      Why did Google wait so long? Vanced was hoe many years long? It was absolutely about the NFT thing.
- Chirael 5y ago
  When you essentially have a monopoly position, and most of your product updates are to improve your own revenue and not to make the customer experience better because you simply don’t have to do that anymore, eventually people will try to revolt and create alternatives. Because of the network effect lock-in, this kind of creativity (patching the existing monopolist’s app rather than creating a whole new service) is one of the more accessible methods of trying to improve the product. I’m not making a judgment on whether or not it is right, but from a purely providing-the-best-product-to-the-user perspective, I am happy to see alternatives flourish.
causality0 5y ago
Sensational! I wonder if they fixed the bug Vanced had where you set mobile video to 480p and it kept trying to play 1080p instead even when your connection wouldn't support it.
Aissen 5y ago
Apparently Vanced was a patched YouTube app for Android, removing ads, adding a dark theme and YouTube Premium features (probably more ?). It was discontinued two weeks ago: https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/13/22975890/youtube-vanced-app-discontinued-shutting-down-legal-reasons https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/13/22975890/youtube-vanced-a...
- hijinks 5y ago
  best part of vanced was the ability to background youtube so you can listen to music with the screen being locked
  - convery 5y ago
    BTW, Firefox on mobile lets you do that as well.
    - entropicdrifter 5y ago
      Firefox for Android also supports uBlock Origin
      - Normille 5y ago
        ..but, unfortunately doesn't have text-reflow. Yandex Browser has text-reflow and used to support uBlock Origin [and other extensions] too. Now it no longer supports installing uBO. So Android currently has two browsers, each of which is half useful!
        The_Colonel 5y ago
        Note that Yandex is a Russian company and as such carries significant risks.
        3np 5y ago
        You are not wrong but the same can be said for PRC and USA companies. Mentioning that every time the products and services of these three countries are mentioned is not interesting.
gundamdoubleO 5y ago
Is this somehow based on the original Vanced app (which wasn't open source afaik?) or are they essentially beginning from scratch?
- kakawait 5y ago
  At first is different because to avoid the same issue as Vanced, it will not ship you patched version of YouTube App but it will ship a patcher. That mean you'll must have installed YouTube because it will be companion or patch (I'm not sure if it will patch the YouTube app or be a service next to YouTube to apply Vanced feature at runtime)
- ushakov 5y ago
  don't know for sure, but since Vanced wasn't open-source, ReVanced possibly decompiled it and extracted the patches?
- Psychotherapist 5y ago
  The Re in ReVanced is for "Reverse Engineered" Vanced. ReVanced is going to be identical to the original Vanced, but later on (especially since it's open source) more patches/"plugins" will be available.
timdaub 5y ago
Youtube's frequency of ads has become so extreme that I've just yesterday opted to pay 11€/month for YT Premium. I had tried before disabling them with a Pihole or by blocking domains. It didn't work. Also, on a Samsung TV, you can't really install another front end.
- nicoco 5y ago
  I don't youtube that much but ublock+firefox and newpipe have been efficient for me. Edit: overlooked your comment and did not see you mentioned a smart TV.
- ulzeraj 5y ago
  I have a Sharp TV on my living room and the YT app crashes everytime a certain type of ad is played after the video starts. I don't know if its the video codec or if the TV is having a hard time going back to the original video. Out of nowhere a 5 second chocolate or cheese ad plays and the TV OS completely crashes. Tried attaching an ARM SBC with Librelec but the state of the Youtube apps are extremely broken in a way that you need api keys from a google cloud account and that allows you to only play videos. Your subscriptions and everything are not imported. PS4 runs fine but I don't want to run a 100W console to watch YT videos. Meanwhile I've found out that most of my favorite channels (mostly tech and retro stuff) are also uploading to Odyssey as a sort of backup strategy. That works very well for me.
  - ajot 5y ago
    Can your SBC run Android (or even better, LineageOS)? If so, you can install Kodi for Android and launch Youtube or Newpipe within Kodi.
    - ulzeraj 5y ago
      It is a RockPro64. The stock image offered by Pine is borderline useless barebones without the store. Some complicated process involving connecting an usb-c cable and running ADB from Android SDK is necessary. I also tried some Android distribution called Slash TV which seems to be kinda complete but the videos keep defaulting to 480p even after I set my preferences to high quality. It seems Slash TV is a one man's project and it hasn't received an upgrade in a while. I was surprised how much of a nice product Librelec is but all the YT apps for Kodi (Youtube, Tubed) are in this broken state due to some API changes.
xyzal 5y ago
They should mirror somewhere outside of GitHub, this may get taken down.
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  Zip it and host it as a torrent with a magnet link?
- blibble 5y ago
  not sure MS will be too concerned about Google losing ad revenue
  - hundchenkatze 5y ago
    Maybe not, but MS does follow the DMCA takedown process. > "If the notice alleges that the entire contents of a repository infringe, or a package infringes, we will skip to Step 6 and disable the entire repository or package expeditiously." [0] This is what was going on with some Grand Theft Auto mods[1] and youtube-dl [2] [0] https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/content-removal-policies/dmca-takedown-policy#a-how-does-this-actually-work https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/content-removal-polic... [1] https://www.thegamer.com/taketwo-dmca-takedowns-gta-mods/ https://www.thegamer.com/taketwo-dmca-takedowns-gta-mods/ [2] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/youtube-dl-removed-from-github-after-riaa-dmca-notice/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/youtube-dl-re...
    - judge2020 5y ago
      So does everyone else. Only self-hosted gives you the ability to ignore DMCA takedowns because the same entity is taking liability for either not following a dmca or performing the actual copyright infringement.
    - chii 5y ago
      > MS does follow the DMCA takedown process. which would be bad if the repo had any copyrighted materials. But does it?
    - 5y ago
brink 5y ago
I wouldn't be so resistant to paying Youtube if they weren't so trigger happy with censorship.
- laci37 5y ago
  Same thing here. I'm happy to pay for Nebula. But I don't want to pay to a platform that is constantly criticized by all the creators publishing there.
- xanaxagoras 5y ago
  Same. I was happy to pay for it a couple of years ago, but I recently cancelled a pretty long running premium subscription. If they're not outright removing videos from people I subscribe to, or outright removing people entirely, they're creating an atmosphere where those who remain rigorously self-censor to preserve their clout and income streams. Most of the content that's left is uninteresting because it's too risky to discuss anything controversial, let alone express a controversial opinion. RIP.
  - LordDragonfang 5y ago
    I have plenty of very interesting stuff on my feed too. Even discussions of "controversial" topics. Other than bad-faith DMCA claims, I rarely see videos get taken down. Which leads me to wonder what type of content you're subscribing to. Most of the time when I see complaints of "censorship" or "controversial" topics, it's a dog whistle for a very specific kind of speech.
    - xanaxagoras 5y ago
      Sorry, what exactly are you insinuating?
- wintermutestwin 5y ago
  I wouldn't be so resistant to paying YouTube if they weren't stealing my data.
- renewiltord 5y ago
zozbot234 5y ago
- chii 5y ago
  Other than just removal of ads, the vanced app enhanced the usability - like being able to hide the shorts, being able to set the default video resolution and default speed. Not to mention sponsorblock - not that i use it, but i can understand people who do.
- seanw444 5y ago
  Because paying the subscription still gets you less features. It's not worth paying for.
- technocratius 5y ago
  I have YT Red, but still use Vanced so I can disable "addictive" functionalities (primarily _Stories_) which I cannot disable in the regular YT app.
  - technocratius 5y ago
    *Shorts
    - SifJar 5y ago
      YouTube has both shorts & stories as separate things, and I believe Vanced could remove both
  - moron4hire 5y ago
    The Shorts are all crappy rips of TikTok videos anyway. Who would waste their time watching it?
- Youden 5y ago
  You make it sound like either/or but Vanced was never just about getting rid of ads. I pay for YouTube Premium but Vanced was still appealing because it removes other things I don't want, like posts in my home feed, Shorts, YouTube Originals and sponsored segments of videos. Vanced is about giving the user what the user wants, instead of what YouTube wants the user to want.
slenk 5y ago
It always suprises me how unwilling the tech community is to support creators on YouTube. You're not hurting YouTube by blocking ads, you're hurting the people who get ads from their videos. Just pay for Youtube Premium - its no different than Spotify or Apple music price-wise and people shell out for that without thinking every month.
- ghosty141 5y ago
  You are forgetting about things like patreon or buying merch which will generate much more revenue for the creator than premium does. LinusTechTips made a video specifically about the issue of Vanced from the perspective of a user as well as a creator.
  - slenk 5y ago
    But for REALLY small creators that don't think they deserve a patreon or want to sell merch. I ran a very niche live-stream for a while, and the most steady stream of income for my live streams was from Youtube Premium users.
- metadat 5y ago
  No thank you. If the only reason people make videos is so I'll watch the ads, they can go straight to hell where they belong.
- Arch485 5y ago
  Most people just get sponsored these days. YouTube ad revenue hasn't been viable for a long time...
  - cturhan 5y ago
    How? A creator earns $1k-10k per million views (US - depending on video length)
- CuriouslyC 5y ago
  Maybe you didn't know this, but Google is stingy as fuck in terms of the portion of ad revenue they share with content creators. Most content creators just see youtube as a way to get exposure, then they turn around and monetize other ways like sponsors, patreon, product sales, etc.
orliesaurus 5y ago
I decided to be a translator for this project - that's the best contribution I can do as I know nothing about android - it seems like a good cause for the following reasons: - I know of people who live in countries where YouTube Red isn't available, I pay for YouTube red myself and it's life changing. I want them to be able to experience this too in a way or another - I feel like Google might have done the right thing in their eyes by forcing Vanced to shutdown, but I also think they didn't address the problem in its entirety. You can shut down 1 app - 10 more pop up. Maybe the strategy should be, introduce better features instead of taking them away and think about monetizing differently? - I really can't stand Monday.com ads btw ;) they're everywhere even in my sleep.
- MisterSandman 5y ago
  My guess is YouTube is well aware of the fact that new ones are going to pop up. I'm guessing they did the math and realized that YouTube Vanced became big enough that it was worth shutting down and removing it from the limelight while minimizing the Streisand Effect. > Maybe the strategy should be, introduce better features instead of taking them away and think about monetizing differently? As a Vanced user, I do agree that the app is objectively superior than the YouTube app. Customizable toolbars, better dark mode, disabling thumbnails auto-playing, more video control options etc. But 99.99% of people used Vanced to get rid of ads without paying, and that isn't something YouTube can compete against. No amount of "good features" would've caused people to abandon Vanced and switch to vanilla YouTube (well, unless they reduced or removed ads, which would be detrimental to their business and creators). Every Vanced user should've known that this was a fight club situation, where if Vanced got big enough it would have to die.
  - LosWochosWeek 5y ago
    >No amount of "good features" would've caused people to abandon Vanced and switch to vanilla YouTube Maybe for the majority of people, but surely I'm not the only one who would go back to Vanilla YouTube and pay for Premium if you could run Sponsorblock. I'm not paying 10 bucks a month to get rid of ads just to be bombarbed by "goofy" segways into mid-video commercials. Sponsorblock - to me - is the killer feature of Vanced. It's crazy how much of a video is just stupid fluff that nobody has any use or need for.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ben30 5y ago
side note, on iOS, I uninstalled youtube app and use the site in safari with an ad blocker.
- reayn 5y ago
  works like a charm here as well, and saves me from having another pretty much useless website-as-an-app installed on my phone!
- zumzumzum 5y ago
  What adblocker do you use? I would love to cancel my premium subscription. I used to use vanced on android, but I really like iOS since I've switched.
  - aspenmayer 5y ago
    I really like AdGuard. Their free version is more than adequate. https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS
- monocularvision 5y ago
  Check out Vinegar (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303...) It is so good I am almost afraid to mention it and it get too popular. No affiliation at all with the product, just a happy user. (edited to remove incorrect statement)
  - cturhan 5y ago
    App is not available in my country (us) :(
    - dddddddan 5y ago
      What? Yes it is. If you opened that link on desktop though it will show that message since it will try to open the mac app store.
nonbirithm 5y ago
I have a feeling that any piece of closed-source software that becomes important enough will inevitably be reverse engineered by highly motivated people. This is doubly so for Vanced: The original team took pains to not release the source, but it merely took a few weeks for someone else to reverse engineer the reverse engineered codebase. I've worked on preserving a few games with decompilers long after the original creators have moved on. Anecdotally, the death of Flash all but killed off a couple of assorted communities that didn't have enough motivation to hack the binaries themselves. My guess is the only software that can perpetually maintain a community is software where the source code is available to be modified.
- og_pixel 5y ago
  I don't know much about the topic so forgive my ignorance, but aren't Android apps written in Java/JVM language? Meaning decompilation should be really straightforward, I remember IntelliJ having a decompiler, many times I would accidental open a `class` file and it would suggest decompilation. This kind of code was still hard to read, but it was Java, not bytecode.
  - daveloyall 5y ago
    It's all relative, I'm sure, and I don't have any experience with decompilers other than this one: https://www.benf.org/other/cfr/ https://www.benf.org/other/cfr/, but, if you look at the change log there you will see that "really straightforward" is an unfortunately optimistic outlook. :)
    - kaba0 5y ago
      Nah, java can be decompiled really really well. To the point that basically every app uses obfuscation to make the resulting code harder to comprehend.
  - michaelmior 5y ago
    Generally it's not too hard to decompile. But whether the code is any way readable or easy to modify is another question.
jerrygoyal 5y ago
well this is sooner than I expected
chronogram 5y ago
I hope they get a version without MicroG requirement again. I like having an additional YouTube app installed that’s logged out without immediately getting the ad-infested free version. I used NewPipe in the past for that but that is constantly buffering for me and I don’t have a lick of experience with Android development to resolve that.
throwxxxaway 5y ago
Could anyone who is familiar with Java/Kotlin/Android explain how does this work? I tried decompiling YouTube App on Android to remove the ads some time ago, but I failed to compile it back because some kind of security thing did not allow the app to start.
- Psychotherapist 5y ago
  Although I am not really familiar with Android Development, I got it to work like this: - decompile using apktool - make changes - recompile apk using apktool - zipalign apk - sign apk (using the apksigner.jar) with a certificate Tools like uber-apk-signer really help to do the last three steps
siccophantic 5y ago
princevegeta89 5y ago
Yay
noname120 5y ago
(Original) Vanced source code: https://github.com/fdciabdul/Vanced-Backup/tree/master/source https://github.com/fdciabdul/Vanced-Backup/tree/master/sourc...
esjeon 5y ago
TBH, I'm very puzzled: is YouTube really that much worth your time and effort? Some might claim it's a kind of movement, or sorta free software, but, to me, it all looks like simply simple piracy, which is a highway to vendor lock-in. Pirates act as if they are in control of their decisions, but, in reality, the company is still in control. Piracy is incorporated into the business model as an accepted risk, and the company will do their best to control the risk. You're at the mercy of the company, especially when the company in question is large and multi-national. Also, anything you do "on the platform" will only empower the platform, furthering their abuse and exploit on users. The company will only care about the number of users and the total amount of revenue, and the number of pirates will always be too small to impact their metric. So, for the company, you're just a user who refuses to leave the platform despite of the misuse. The only proper way to react to any sabotage against user is to leave the platform, even temporarily. Now some people will obviously come up with "lifestyle" issues, but one should realize that the lifestyle in question is something formed by the company and their products. It's variable by nature, and nothing constant, and, actually, can be changed with a surprisingly small amount of effort. (e.g. domain block) Thus, if you really dream of better internet, you should not be making/using things like this. It's all a wasted effort, which will get easily buried at a snap of someone's finger, leaving no legacy that can be succeeded by others.
onbfdoibfdoidf 5y ago
onbfdoibfdoidf 5y ago

345 points by Gadiguibou 5y ago

Looks like their patches repo is public - I wonder if that'll lead the the adblocking technique being patched out quickly by Google? Either way happy to see this app revived, even as a premium subscriber - it provides functionality that makes YouTube much nicer to use

idealmedtech 5y ago
Interestingly, it's not the patches repo which contains the actual patches, it's the _integrations_ repo: https://github.com/ReVancedTeam/revanced-integrations/blob/main/app/src/main/java/fi/razerman/youtube/XAdRemover.java https://github.com/ReVancedTeam/revanced-integrations/blob/m...
ushakov 5y ago
i'm confident Google can't patch this without breaking their own app
- d82nsjk9 5y ago
  why?
  - ajsnigrutin 5y ago
    (Re)Vanced is an app, dealing with googles backend. They can either change the youtube app, to break Vanced, but this can be mitigated by not upgrading the youtube app, until there are patches for the new version,... or they can change the backend, thus breaking all the older youtube clients, making everyone upgrade their clients "now", which is a pain in the ass for many people.
    - genera1 5y ago
      For many devices it wouldn't be "pain in the ass", it would be straight up impossible. There are millions of devices, like smart TVs, that are out of support and don't receive updates, substantially changing API would break them. It might happen at some point, but it would piss off many people.
      - ajsnigrutin 5y ago
        Yes, because google always cares about not pissing off people and they never shut down old services... /s of course
    - 3np 5y ago
      What I've seen is reducing quality available for older versions/protocols - so yeah, it will stay play but you won't get the highest bitrates without upgrading.

mach1ne 5y ago

At least they didn't make the copyright mistakes this time. Perhaps it would be better if this version of Vanced stayed difficult to install to avoid spreading it too wide.

gruez 5y ago
>At least they didn't make the copyright mistakes this time more like, trademark mistakes. Patching and redistributing a proprietary app most definitely violates copyrights.
- l-lousy 5y ago
  Google didn’t do anything until Vanced tried to release an NFT and profit off the app
  - LosWochosWeek 5y ago
    How can people actually believe that? Sure, a 'deleted-an-hour-after-posting' tweet is what made Google muster up all their lawyers to take down an app that millions used to circumvent paying for YouTube Premium and/or watch ads. It was a stupid coincident. Google would've killed Vanced sooner or later.
    - throwaway64643 5y ago
      When a narrative fits one's belief, they won't stop to question its validity.
- lb_ 5y ago
  > redistributing a proprietary app Revanced patches the locally installed version, so hopefully that means they'll be in the clear
moondev 5y ago
> Not affiliated with Vanced team. I wonder if the original "vanced" can now file a dispute over this project's name?

hohoemi8 5y ago

What did Google expect? If they take this one down another will appear to take its place, and so on.

sofixa 5y ago
There are already alternatives out there (like New Pipe). Vanced was taken down because they tried to monetise it via an NFT which crossed a line.
- Z_I_F_F 5y ago
  The NFT had nothing to do with the takedown. According to the Vanced team, it was taken down because the logo they used was too similar to the official one.
  - sofixa 5y ago
    Why did Google wait so long? Vanced was hoe many years long? It was absolutely about the NFT thing.
Chirael 5y ago
When you essentially have a monopoly position, and most of your product updates are to improve your own revenue and not to make the customer experience better because you simply don’t have to do that anymore, eventually people will try to revolt and create alternatives. Because of the network effect lock-in, this kind of creativity (patching the existing monopolist’s app rather than creating a whole new service) is one of the more accessible methods of trying to improve the product. I’m not making a judgment on whether or not it is right, but from a purely providing-the-best-product-to-the-user perspective, I am happy to see alternatives flourish.

causality0 5y ago

Sensational! I wonder if they fixed the bug Vanced had where you set mobile video to 480p and it kept trying to play 1080p instead even when your connection wouldn't support it.

Aissen 5y ago

Apparently Vanced was a patched YouTube app for Android, removing ads, adding a dark theme and YouTube Premium features (probably more ?). It was discontinued two weeks ago: https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/13/22975890/youtube-vanced-app-discontinued-shutting-down-legal-reasons https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/13/22975890/youtube-vanced-a...

hijinks 5y ago
best part of vanced was the ability to background youtube so you can listen to music with the screen being locked
- convery 5y ago
  BTW, Firefox on mobile lets you do that as well.
  - entropicdrifter 5y ago
    Firefox for Android also supports uBlock Origin
    - Normille 5y ago
      ..but, unfortunately doesn't have text-reflow. Yandex Browser has text-reflow and used to support uBlock Origin [and other extensions] too. Now it no longer supports installing uBO. So Android currently has two browsers, each of which is half useful!
      - The_Colonel 5y ago
        Note that Yandex is a Russian company and as such carries significant risks.
        3np 5y ago
        You are not wrong but the same can be said for PRC and USA companies. Mentioning that every time the products and services of these three countries are mentioned is not interesting.

gundamdoubleO 5y ago

Is this somehow based on the original Vanced app (which wasn't open source afaik?) or are they essentially beginning from scratch?

kakawait 5y ago
At first is different because to avoid the same issue as Vanced, it will not ship you patched version of YouTube App but it will ship a patcher. That mean you'll must have installed YouTube because it will be companion or patch (I'm not sure if it will patch the YouTube app or be a service next to YouTube to apply Vanced feature at runtime)
ushakov 5y ago
don't know for sure, but since Vanced wasn't open-source, ReVanced possibly decompiled it and extracted the patches?
Psychotherapist 5y ago
The Re in ReVanced is for "Reverse Engineered" Vanced. ReVanced is going to be identical to the original Vanced, but later on (especially since it's open source) more patches/"plugins" will be available.

timdaub 5y ago

Youtube's frequency of ads has become so extreme that I've just yesterday opted to pay 11€/month for YT Premium. I had tried before disabling them with a Pihole or by blocking domains. It didn't work. Also, on a Samsung TV, you can't really install another front end.

nicoco 5y ago
I don't youtube that much but ublock+firefox and newpipe have been efficient for me. Edit: overlooked your comment and did not see you mentioned a smart TV.
ulzeraj 5y ago
I have a Sharp TV on my living room and the YT app crashes everytime a certain type of ad is played after the video starts. I don't know if its the video codec or if the TV is having a hard time going back to the original video. Out of nowhere a 5 second chocolate or cheese ad plays and the TV OS completely crashes. Tried attaching an ARM SBC with Librelec but the state of the Youtube apps are extremely broken in a way that you need api keys from a google cloud account and that allows you to only play videos. Your subscriptions and everything are not imported. PS4 runs fine but I don't want to run a 100W console to watch YT videos. Meanwhile I've found out that most of my favorite channels (mostly tech and retro stuff) are also uploading to Odyssey as a sort of backup strategy. That works very well for me.
- ajot 5y ago
  Can your SBC run Android (or even better, LineageOS)? If so, you can install Kodi for Android and launch Youtube or Newpipe within Kodi.
  - ulzeraj 5y ago
    It is a RockPro64. The stock image offered by Pine is borderline useless barebones without the store. Some complicated process involving connecting an usb-c cable and running ADB from Android SDK is necessary. I also tried some Android distribution called Slash TV which seems to be kinda complete but the videos keep defaulting to 480p even after I set my preferences to high quality. It seems Slash TV is a one man's project and it hasn't received an upgrade in a while. I was surprised how much of a nice product Librelec is but all the YT apps for Kodi (Youtube, Tubed) are in this broken state due to some API changes.

xyzal 5y ago

They should mirror somewhere outside of GitHub, this may get taken down.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
Zip it and host it as a torrent with a magnet link?
blibble 5y ago
not sure MS will be too concerned about Google losing ad revenue
- hundchenkatze 5y ago
  Maybe not, but MS does follow the DMCA takedown process. > "If the notice alleges that the entire contents of a repository infringe, or a package infringes, we will skip to Step 6 and disable the entire repository or package expeditiously." [0] This is what was going on with some Grand Theft Auto mods[1] and youtube-dl [2] [0] https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/content-removal-policies/dmca-takedown-policy#a-how-does-this-actually-work https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/content-removal-polic... [1] https://www.thegamer.com/taketwo-dmca-takedowns-gta-mods/ https://www.thegamer.com/taketwo-dmca-takedowns-gta-mods/ [2] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/youtube-dl-removed-from-github-after-riaa-dmca-notice/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/youtube-dl-re...
  - judge2020 5y ago
    So does everyone else. Only self-hosted gives you the ability to ignore DMCA takedowns because the same entity is taking liability for either not following a dmca or performing the actual copyright infringement.
  - chii 5y ago
    > MS does follow the DMCA takedown process. which would be bad if the repo had any copyrighted materials. But does it?
  - 5y ago

brink 5y ago

I wouldn't be so resistant to paying Youtube if they weren't so trigger happy with censorship.

laci37 5y ago
Same thing here. I'm happy to pay for Nebula. But I don't want to pay to a platform that is constantly criticized by all the creators publishing there.
xanaxagoras 5y ago
Same. I was happy to pay for it a couple of years ago, but I recently cancelled a pretty long running premium subscription. If they're not outright removing videos from people I subscribe to, or outright removing people entirely, they're creating an atmosphere where those who remain rigorously self-censor to preserve their clout and income streams. Most of the content that's left is uninteresting because it's too risky to discuss anything controversial, let alone express a controversial opinion. RIP.
- LordDragonfang 5y ago
  I have plenty of very interesting stuff on my feed too. Even discussions of "controversial" topics. Other than bad-faith DMCA claims, I rarely see videos get taken down. Which leads me to wonder what type of content you're subscribing to. Most of the time when I see complaints of "censorship" or "controversial" topics, it's a dog whistle for a very specific kind of speech.
  - xanaxagoras 5y ago
    Sorry, what exactly are you insinuating?
wintermutestwin 5y ago
I wouldn't be so resistant to paying YouTube if they weren't stealing my data.
renewiltord 5y ago

zozbot234 5y ago

chii 5y ago
Other than just removal of ads, the vanced app enhanced the usability - like being able to hide the shorts, being able to set the default video resolution and default speed. Not to mention sponsorblock - not that i use it, but i can understand people who do.
seanw444 5y ago
Because paying the subscription still gets you less features. It's not worth paying for.
technocratius 5y ago
I have YT Red, but still use Vanced so I can disable "addictive" functionalities (primarily _Stories_) which I cannot disable in the regular YT app.
- technocratius 5y ago
  *Shorts
  - SifJar 5y ago
    YouTube has both shorts & stories as separate things, and I believe Vanced could remove both
- moron4hire 5y ago
  The Shorts are all crappy rips of TikTok videos anyway. Who would waste their time watching it?
Youden 5y ago
You make it sound like either/or but Vanced was never just about getting rid of ads. I pay for YouTube Premium but Vanced was still appealing because it removes other things I don't want, like posts in my home feed, Shorts, YouTube Originals and sponsored segments of videos. Vanced is about giving the user what the user wants, instead of what YouTube wants the user to want.

slenk 5y ago

It always suprises me how unwilling the tech community is to support creators on YouTube. You're not hurting YouTube by blocking ads, you're hurting the people who get ads from their videos. Just pay for Youtube Premium - its no different than Spotify or Apple music price-wise and people shell out for that without thinking every month.

ghosty141 5y ago
You are forgetting about things like patreon or buying merch which will generate much more revenue for the creator than premium does. LinusTechTips made a video specifically about the issue of Vanced from the perspective of a user as well as a creator.
- slenk 5y ago
  But for REALLY small creators that don't think they deserve a patreon or want to sell merch. I ran a very niche live-stream for a while, and the most steady stream of income for my live streams was from Youtube Premium users.
metadat 5y ago
No thank you. If the only reason people make videos is so I'll watch the ads, they can go straight to hell where they belong.
Arch485 5y ago
Most people just get sponsored these days. YouTube ad revenue hasn't been viable for a long time...
- cturhan 5y ago
  How? A creator earns $1k-10k per million views (US - depending on video length)
CuriouslyC 5y ago
Maybe you didn't know this, but Google is stingy as fuck in terms of the portion of ad revenue they share with content creators. Most content creators just see youtube as a way to get exposure, then they turn around and monetize other ways like sponsors, patreon, product sales, etc.

orliesaurus 5y ago

I decided to be a translator for this project - that's the best contribution I can do as I know nothing about android - it seems like a good cause for the following reasons: - I know of people who live in countries where YouTube Red isn't available, I pay for YouTube red myself and it's life changing. I want them to be able to experience this too in a way or another - I feel like Google might have done the right thing in their eyes by forcing Vanced to shutdown, but I also think they didn't address the problem in its entirety. You can shut down 1 app - 10 more pop up. Maybe the strategy should be, introduce better features instead of taking them away and think about monetizing differently? - I really can't stand Monday.com ads btw ;) they're everywhere even in my sleep.

MisterSandman 5y ago
My guess is YouTube is well aware of the fact that new ones are going to pop up. I'm guessing they did the math and realized that YouTube Vanced became big enough that it was worth shutting down and removing it from the limelight while minimizing the Streisand Effect. > Maybe the strategy should be, introduce better features instead of taking them away and think about monetizing differently? As a Vanced user, I do agree that the app is objectively superior than the YouTube app. Customizable toolbars, better dark mode, disabling thumbnails auto-playing, more video control options etc. But 99.99% of people used Vanced to get rid of ads without paying, and that isn't something YouTube can compete against. No amount of "good features" would've caused people to abandon Vanced and switch to vanilla YouTube (well, unless they reduced or removed ads, which would be detrimental to their business and creators). Every Vanced user should've known that this was a fight club situation, where if Vanced got big enough it would have to die.
- LosWochosWeek 5y ago
  >No amount of "good features" would've caused people to abandon Vanced and switch to vanilla YouTube Maybe for the majority of people, but surely I'm not the only one who would go back to Vanilla YouTube and pay for Premium if you could run Sponsorblock. I'm not paying 10 bucks a month to get rid of ads just to be bombarbed by "goofy" segways into mid-video commercials. Sponsorblock - to me - is the killer feature of Vanced. It's crazy how much of a video is just stupid fluff that nobody has any use or need for.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

ben30 5y ago

side note, on iOS, I uninstalled youtube app and use the site in safari with an ad blocker.

reayn 5y ago
works like a charm here as well, and saves me from having another pretty much useless website-as-an-app installed on my phone!
zumzumzum 5y ago
What adblocker do you use? I would love to cancel my premium subscription. I used to use vanced on android, but I really like iOS since I've switched.
- aspenmayer 5y ago
  I really like AdGuard. Their free version is more than adequate. https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS
monocularvision 5y ago
Check out Vinegar (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303...) It is so good I am almost afraid to mention it and it get too popular. No affiliation at all with the product, just a happy user. (edited to remove incorrect statement)
- cturhan 5y ago
  App is not available in my country (us) :(
  - dddddddan 5y ago
    What? Yes it is. If you opened that link on desktop though it will show that message since it will try to open the mac app store.

nonbirithm 5y ago

I have a feeling that any piece of closed-source software that becomes important enough will inevitably be reverse engineered by highly motivated people. This is doubly so for Vanced: The original team took pains to not release the source, but it merely took a few weeks for someone else to reverse engineer the reverse engineered codebase. I've worked on preserving a few games with decompilers long after the original creators have moved on. Anecdotally, the death of Flash all but killed off a couple of assorted communities that didn't have enough motivation to hack the binaries themselves. My guess is the only software that can perpetually maintain a community is software where the source code is available to be modified.

og_pixel 5y ago
I don't know much about the topic so forgive my ignorance, but aren't Android apps written in Java/JVM language? Meaning decompilation should be really straightforward, I remember IntelliJ having a decompiler, many times I would accidental open a `class` file and it would suggest decompilation. This kind of code was still hard to read, but it was Java, not bytecode.
- daveloyall 5y ago
  It's all relative, I'm sure, and I don't have any experience with decompilers other than this one: https://www.benf.org/other/cfr/ https://www.benf.org/other/cfr/, but, if you look at the change log there you will see that "really straightforward" is an unfortunately optimistic outlook. :)
  - kaba0 5y ago
    Nah, java can be decompiled really really well. To the point that basically every app uses obfuscation to make the resulting code harder to comprehend.
- michaelmior 5y ago
  Generally it's not too hard to decompile. But whether the code is any way readable or easy to modify is another question.

jerrygoyal 5y ago

well this is sooner than I expected

chronogram 5y ago

I hope they get a version without MicroG requirement again. I like having an additional YouTube app installed that’s logged out without immediately getting the ad-infested free version. I used NewPipe in the past for that but that is constantly buffering for me and I don’t have a lick of experience with Android development to resolve that.

throwxxxaway 5y ago

Could anyone who is familiar with Java/Kotlin/Android explain how does this work? I tried decompiling YouTube App on Android to remove the ads some time ago, but I failed to compile it back because some kind of security thing did not allow the app to start.

Psychotherapist 5y ago
Although I am not really familiar with Android Development, I got it to work like this: - decompile using apktool - make changes - recompile apk using apktool - zipalign apk - sign apk (using the apksigner.jar) with a certificate Tools like uber-apk-signer really help to do the last three steps

siccophantic 5y ago

princevegeta89 5y ago

Yay

noname120 5y ago

(Original) Vanced source code: https://github.com/fdciabdul/Vanced-Backup/tree/master/source https://github.com/fdciabdul/Vanced-Backup/tree/master/sourc...

esjeon 5y ago

TBH, I'm very puzzled: is YouTube really that much worth your time and effort? Some might claim it's a kind of movement, or sorta free software, but, to me, it all looks like simply simple piracy, which is a highway to vendor lock-in. Pirates act as if they are in control of their decisions, but, in reality, the company is still in control. Piracy is incorporated into the business model as an accepted risk, and the company will do their best to control the risk. You're at the mercy of the company, especially when the company in question is large and multi-national. Also, anything you do "on the platform" will only empower the platform, furthering their abuse and exploit on users. The company will only care about the number of users and the total amount of revenue, and the number of pirates will always be too small to impact their metric. So, for the company, you're just a user who refuses to leave the platform despite of the misuse. The only proper way to react to any sabotage against user is to leave the platform, even temporarily. Now some people will obviously come up with "lifestyle" issues, but one should realize that the lifestyle in question is something formed by the company and their products. It's variable by nature, and nothing constant, and, actually, can be changed with a surprisingly small amount of effort. (e.g. domain block) Thus, if you really dream of better internet, you should not be making/using things like this. It's all a wasted effort, which will get easily buried at a snap of someone's finger, leaving no legacy that can be succeeded by others.

onbfdoibfdoidf 5y ago