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If you're on iOS, I highly recommend Yattee[1], a free Youtube app with no ads, background playback and sponsor block built-in. The way they get around App Sto
by miki123211 3y ago
If you're on iOS, I highly recommend Yattee[1], a free Youtube app with no ads, background playback and sponsor block built-in.
The way they get around App Store restrictions is by claiming that they aren't a Youtube app. They're technically a video-watching app which is supposed to be used with your own personal server. The server API they require, however, is supported by Invidious[2], an open-source, privacy-preserving Youtube front end. If you configure an Invidious instance in settings[3] (you don't have to host your own, there are plenty of them out there), you effectively get access to the entirety of Youtube.
It's not a replacement for the official app by any means, it doesn't have a recommendation feed, it doesn't let you log in with a Google account, so it doesn't sync watch history with your other devices, it doesn't let you cast to Youtube-enabled devices, post comments, scroll through shorts etc, but if you have a playlist or a specific, longer video in mind, it's quite good. It also supports Invidious accounts, which let you manage channel subscriptions.
[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yattee/id1595136629 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yattee/id1595136629
[2] https://invidious.io/ https://invidious.io/
[3] https://gonzoknows.com/posts/yattee/ https://gonzoknows.com/posts/yattee/
- topicseed 3y agoOr just pay for YouTube Premium?
- 0xffff2 3y agoI pay for Premium. Sadly it doesn't stop creators from inserting their own ~ads~ sponsorships into the videos directly so Sponsorblock is still a non-negotiable component of Youtube for me.
- scrollaway 3y agoI highly recommend Nebula. Not only is it adfree and sponsor free, it’s also much more curated than YouTube so the odds of finding good quality videos there are very high. Plus I paid for the lifetime subscription there so … no subscription for me.
- 0xffff2 3y agoI looked at all (I think?) of the people on Nebula. I only recognize a few and none of them are people I follow on Youtube. The average quality might be higher, but it doesn't seem like Nebula is a platform for the niche YouTubers that make the platform worthwile for me.
- dxxmxnd 3y ago16 USD a month just to block ads seems ridiculous.
- abawany 3y agoIt's cheaper if you pay annually (129usd, afair). And YT Premium also includes access to YT Music, which is also ad-free. Plus the annual subscription doesn't auto-renew.
- shultays 3y agoAnd it is inferior since it lacks sponsor block. I have premium that I use on my phone and it is pretty annoying that pretty much each video still has ads in them in the form of a sponsor segment At some point I will probably cancel my subscription and use an unofficial app with sponsor block. And that aldo hopefully blocks shorts ad well
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- comprev 3y agoMusi on iOS [0] is a fantastic YouTube client which removes ads. The trick, albeit slightly inconvenient, is to copy/paste the exact YT title you wish to view. The search functionality isn’t that good. Some things live like streams don’t work however this has never been an issue for me. [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/musi-simple-music-streaming/id591560124 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/musi-simple-music-streaming/id...
- Jaxan 3y agoOh this is amazing! Even works on iOS 15! Thanks for the recommendation.
- switch007 3y agoI love this just for the getting around of Apple's restrictions
- immibis 3y agoI heard the next version of iPhone will be forced to allow sideloading, so you could just install this app without jumping through hoops. Thanks, EU!
- mgrandl 3y agoIt's already on the Appstore, you just need to setup a Invidious or Piped instance to watch YouTube.
- RajT88 3y agoThere's also NewPipe on Android: https://newpipe.net/ https://newpipe.net/
- JackGreyhat 3y agoand LibreTube: https://github.com/libre-tube/LibreTube https://github.com/libre-tube/LibreTube
- lom 3y agoand revanced: https://revanced.app/ https://revanced.app/
- ecliptik 3y agoYattee + Tailscale + Piped greatly increased my consumption of Youtube videos. Missing most of the features mentioned (recommendations, watch history, google account, shorts) are all pros instead of cons to me. Just an app for intentionally watching content in a no-frills private environment, it's refreshing.
- esperent 3y agoHow do you find new videos to watch? I have two modes of watching YouTube: 1. When I want to learn about something. Then I use a search engine to find the video, and your setup would be fine 2. When I want to relax and watch generally interesting informative videos. Or sometimes comedy or animation. I subscribe to a range of channels and use the YT recommendations for the second mode (which sucks but is barely usable). How do people watching YT with no account handle this second mode of watching?
- KingMachiavelli 3y agoA lot of these alternatives allow you to keep track of subscriptions without a Google account and actually show a chronological feed (which IMO is one of the most annoying things about the official YouTube app). For mindless watching TikTok is my default.
- esperent 3y ago> For mindless watching TikTok is my default I actually have tried to use TikTok a few times. However I live in a country where I'm not a native speaker and there is no way to set the TikTok region to anywhere except your geographic location. Even when using a VPN, reinstalling the app, and creating an entirely new account, it still knows exactly what country I'm in. That's scary enough to make me not use it much. But I was bored so I figured, the algorithm is supposed to be good right? It should learn I want English videos pretty quickly. Nope, I spent about an hour searching exclusively for videos in English, and 99% of all the recommendations were still in Vietnamese. I guess I should be grateful that one privacy invading timewaster is unavailable to me!
- 3y ago
- akerr 3y agoI use Vinegar[1] with Safari on all platforms which provides HTML5 video (and PiP etc) but with the other YouTube features. I have the Subscriptions page bookmarked so I get a reverse chronological list from my favourite creators. You could also use channel RSS to do this without an account. [1] https://apps.apple.com/app/id1591303229 https://apps.apple.com/app/id1591303229
- lemming 3y agoI also use Vinegar, it's great. I recommend the developer's other apps, too. They tend to be simple apps which do one useful thing well, and also have a sense of humour.
- christophilus 3y agoBrave on iOS is my choice. It also lets you download videos for offline viewing.
- dybber 3y agoDoes this exist for Apple TV as well?
- bradly 3y agoIt does.
- dceddia 3y agoThis seems great, and it's open source, too: https://github.com/yattee/yattee https://github.com/yattee/yattee And there's a native Mac app! And tvOS! Maybe I'm just getting old, but as I was reading through the list of features this doesn't have, I just got more and more excited. My watch pattern is pretty much watching videos to solve problems or research some particular thing, and I feel like I find most of them through Google or YouTube search. The recommendations can be pretty good, but there's always those clickbaity, completely unrelated ones mixed in, trying to pull me into a totally separate rabbit hole.
- nicce 3y agoJust hopefully Google does not follow the Reddit and Twitter train.
- nostromo 3y agoHere's a much simpler approach: use the Brave browser on iOS and use the YouTube website. It blocks all YouTube ads, allows background playback and picture-in-picture, etc. You also get all of your regular YouTube features, like recommendations, etc. I haven't used the official YouTube app since.
- RoyGBivCap 3y agoUsing the Brave browser on iPadOS at least, YouTube will just refuse to served HD content after one video. Enjoy your 4K video downscaled to 360p.
- propogandist 3y ago[dead]
- tubs 3y agoworks for me without downscaling.
- paulddraper 3y agoUsing Brave to defeat YouTube ads.....ironic.