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Launched Playtoob, a simple YouTube companion, because my 5yo daughter loves it
- aakashg99 3y agoThis is great, I was looking for something similar
- devrimco 3y agoThank you. Makes me very happy that it works for you too. Cheers.
- devrimco 3y agoHi, this is a very simple Youtube playing companion, to watch what you actually choose. I'm a father and a developer. My children needed this. So, I'm lucky I could build it. This became also my preferred Youtube watching experience. Please try?
- chankstein38 3y agoIt says it plays "The best videos from the channel". How is that decided without algorithms? I'm not challenging you I'm just curious. This seems like a great thing, like the copy says "Now there's easily something to watch during dinner" I just don't understand if it's just most recent videos or what.
- devrimco 3y agoyeah. full disclosure, i go far back to get latest couple of hundreds of videos. (i may increase this in the future) and filter out the crap that is live, shorts, and all the restricted non embeddable ones. and i get all their stats. so i try to have around at least 100 "proper" ones of the latest videos. even for mrbeast for example it goes back till 2019. and believe me, old videos are not that attractive to "kids", i was going to say, but i found myself skipping them too. and present the user with an option to order by highest rated or highest viewed. this way i get latest videos of the channel. eg. ordered by the most viewed. and it plays continuously. shuffled in batches of 5.
- krisoft 3y agoWhat you described is clearly an algorithm. But i assume what you mean by “no algorithm” is that you are not using a machine learning based recommendation engine.
- devrimco 3y agoyeah definitely, mine is only a flat out get latest and sort. machine learning based recommendation engine is whole another level.
- darthrupert 3y agoOne could say "no advanced algorithms" without being too wordy about it. I suppose.
- devrimco 3y agostealing this, thank you ;)
- TedDoesntTalk 3y agoI’ve been looking for this for 2 years for my 5 1/2 year old. Ultimately, I deleted the YouTube app and don’t allow the website anymore (content was only through Netflix and Disney+). But now we’ll give it another try. Thanks for writing this.
- devrimco 3y agoyes. the same here. and definitely why i created it. because there are wonderful videos and creators. and kids love them, of course. but the signal-to-noise on youtube and its recommendations boy they are scary.
- devrimco 3y agoNo AI, but it plays latest proper videos from the channels you pick. It doesn't suggest any weird video to your kids. Your children watch whatever you pick to watch.
- gus_massa 3y ago> Just select the channels you love, paste their IDs. [feature request] That's too technical. add all the other way to get to the chanell like https://www.youtube.com/@Disney https://www.youtube.com/@Disney https://www.youtube.com/Disney https://www.youtube.com/Disney https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_5niPa-d35gg88HaS7RrIw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_5niPa-d35gg88HaS7RrIw and the youtu.be version and even paste one video and get the full channel. > No algorithms. Why? I like algorithms. I used yahoo seach untill altavista created the algorithm. > No suggestions. Not sugesting other channels is a feature for me. Some channels are very stupid but my children love them. Not sugesting them is a huge win. [super bonus feature] filter videos by date. Old Super Slime Sam videos are nice, but the recent ones are not.
- devrimco 3y agonoted the feature requests, thank you. already started working on the channel name thingy. i also like algorithms but i decided it was not for kids, when i saw a friends little son watching video of a toy spiderman being bathed by a toy barbie acted by an old bald russian man, i decided it was not for kids. :) also i would like to watch the latest high rated videos from only my favorite channels while i'm having a sandwich at my desk. super bonus feature is also nice i'll try my best on that, as it requires a mega youtube request.. cheers.
- cooper_ganglia 3y agoAgreed, YouTube Kids is not always for kids. There is some very weird, sinister stuff on there that isn't in-your-face obvious. Stuff like that is just weird, it's definitely better to approve certain channels and keep the kiddos from getting pulled into any algorithms!
- ge96 3y agono gif to show it working? just a form to sign up?
- devrimco 3y agoi have this screenshot: https://storage.googleapis.com/indie-hackers.appspot.com/post-images/ae1fefac60/UDc9DhM0tyeSmiw0cao2KWGyCa33/a571b329-426f-30c8-33f7-f49281c1f9ee.png https://storage.googleapis.com/indie-hackers.appspot.com/pos... but you're right. will do. thank you.
- devrimco 3y agosome more screenshot : https://snipboard.io/acH8wg.jpg https://snipboard.io/acH8wg.jpg
- carabiner 3y ago[flagged]
- Etheryte 3y agoThis comment is bleak. Surely you can provide some feedback that's more constructive?
- Supermancho 3y agoIm pretty sure they meant it is obvious that a flat random signup for some kid-focused product, without a demo, is a bad indicator for the longevity of the product; not to mention the ethos of the development. On the flip side, it is likely to last/be available a bit longer without drawing Google's attention, due to the unnecessary friction.
- Etheryte 3y agoWell you can guess as you like, but we can never be sure since it's literally a one-word comment. Not really suitable for HN.
- furyofantares 3y agoSounds excellent. I download whole channels and serve them on Plex. It requires a fair bit of management, and doesn't work when traveling, or if my desktop PC is VPN'd somewhere or off. This is all to prevent suggestions and random browsing. A much simpler solution is very welcome.
- Cyph0n 3y agoSame, but served via Jellyfin. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out Tubesync. It makes managing the downloading side a breeze. https://github.com/meeb/tubesync https://github.com/meeb/tubesync
- devrimco 3y agoyou guys are muuuuuch moooore talented than I am. :)
- xk3 3y agoI made two: https://unli.xyz/eject/ https://unli.xyz/eject/ -- no login, data saved to local browser, you can export to CSV https://github.com/chapmanjacobd/library https://github.com/chapmanjacobd/library -- similar to Plex but CLI-only and no "server" or downloads needed.
- tikkun 3y agoRelated: I recently learned that in the youtube kids app the parent can sign in and select only pre-approved accounts, and can disable search and recommendations.
- devrimco 3y agoyeah you're definitely right. i tried it. it is extremely painful to add any channel to it. its country limited, and afaik you have no free option to add any channel you choose. and it still suggests some stuff, channel bundles, which are boring to children and such. plus, there is no option for me :) i'm also thinking of myself.
- devrimco 3y agoi guess i already hit some quotas somewhere. i'm very sorry. i wasn't expecting this. :(
- recursive 3y agoBehind the signup form is a thumbnail for this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaiKVF2QhnM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaiKVF2QhnM It's definitely not one I'd choose to showcase for child safety.
- devrimco 3y agooh no you're right its randomly picked from the already added channels. until you pick your own channels i chose to do that. but, yeah you have a point. maybe i'll remove that option? or pick 10 safe ones only?
- devrimco 3y agoremoved that channel from the loop at least, for now. :(
- spyder 3y agoUsing AI could have prevented this. So the no AI, or algorithms can be also a negative thing as the example shows. I understand not using it for recommendation because it still has false positives, but using it for filtering could have prevented this. And false negatives for filtering is not so bad and could be just used to put filtered videos in a list that the parent can review, in the case that some good videos are getting accidentally filtered.
- devrimco 3y agodon't get me wrong i love ai. but i want people to have a chance to just watch the videos from the channels they like. both are good. plus, my bad idea was to keep everything shuffled until someone select a channel. plus plus, i can't do what you said, i'm not that talented. :)
- devrimco 3y agowhat would you suggest as a demo, i'm sensing it is also what i did wrong/missing. free account is not a demo enough? maybe some video? some gif? some screenshots?
- fudged71 3y agoFor our house all we need is Blippi, Ms Rachel, and Super Simple Play with Caitie! Maybe add some popular channels that can be shared with a quick link to use your tool. Or a way to chain them together with a simple UrL parameter ChanelID1+ChanelID2 etc
- devrimco 3y agoyou can just easily add their channel ids, comma separated at once, pasting to the box in the screenshot.. screenshot : https://snipboard.io/acH8wg.jpg https://snipboard.io/acH8wg.jpg but then again i can add popular bundles for people to pick from.
- passwordoops 3y agoThis is exactly what YouTube Kids should be. Instead, because if the algo, because of the suggestions, it's a mind-numbing hell scape of complete trash. Great job! Gonna recommend this to everyone at my kid's school
- devrimco 3y agoThank you sooooooooo much for supporting the idea and the project. Can not agree more and mega huge thanks for going the distance to recommend to others. Cheers.
- gizajob 3y agoRecommend parents give their kids something more interesting than putting them in front of YouTube while you’re at it
- devrimco 3y ago:) kids are a little bit demanding when it comes to that. and you sometimes need a silent cup of coffee. plus super simple songs sing better songs than me.
- passwordoops 3y agoYou can always tell who either doesn't have kids or doesn't take care of them full time. My kid: - draws - paints - reads (finished the Harry Potter series for the 3rd time and is discussing hidden gems with me) - records stories and issues then as a podcast - plays keyboard - tablet is limited to 1 hr a day and they are mostly chatting with friends All this is a result of me saying "that sounds like your problem" when they came up to me with the classic "I'm bored". A little entertainment now and then isn't a bad thing. Unless it's on YouTube Kids without supervision.
- rokkitmensch 3y agoHell yeah breeder fam. My line is "dealing with boredom is a skill to develop, go lift kid" which I'm sure they don't understand precisely but definitely get the gist of.
- marbm 3y agoSignup doesn't work for me. Hug of death?
- jacobkg 3y agoNice idea! Does it play through the user’s logged-in account? Or in other words, will it use my YouTube Premium account to play the videos without ads?
- devrimco 3y agothat part is interestingly solved by youtube i guess. it actually does not play through user's account. but i also have premium, and never saw any ads. but must watch more i guess..
- Sarkie 3y agoYouTube kids?
- devrimco 3y agoyoutube kids suggests weird videos in foreign languages. does not allow me to pick exact channels i want my kids to watch. and also there is no option for me to watch the latest high rated videos by the creator's i like. screenshot: https://snipboard.io/acH8wg.jpg https://snipboard.io/acH8wg.jpg
- dutchbrit 3y agoYouTube Kids is the equivalent of crack for kids.
- devrimco 3y agocouldn't have said it better myself.
- wodenokoto 3y agoWhy only 16/32 videos per channel? Why not all? What’s the limiting factor here?
- devrimco 3y agoi only wanted to limit currently on whatever is going to create server burden and fill api quotas. i already started hitting free quotas on youtube api and a couple of more, and already feel like i may need to upgrade server. and also wanted to create a fun enough free account, with 256 videos in rotation. but a strong paid account with 1024 videos in rotation, which is almost around the movie/series rotation of a netflix account. also youtube is there for everything the creators share, i just wanted to create a "filterable customizable sortable latest videos watching" companion to them not replace them, i guess that is also not allowed by the api usage.
- wodenokoto 3y ago> A strong paid account with 1024 videos in rotation, which is almost around the movie/series rotation of a netflix That sounds a lot more convincing than "32 videos from each creator"
- applified510 3y agoAppreciate this release! I have a 3 year old and It was becoming difficult to manage what he was watching. One thing that disturbs me most about the Youtube App is that it's search functionality is extremely limited. If I search "educational videos" on youtube.com i see so much more variety of videos and channels vs youtube tv app, the search seems so filtered and honestly does not even show the videos I see on youtube.com. So thank you for the tool! I am currently using it on a spare apple device, airplayed to my apple tv, with the iphone screen off, video playing in background, and auto play of next videos. idk... seems like perfection to me. I also appreciate this project because it's so cool that you had this idea and then executed on it. I have the ability to execute but I just don't have the ability to think of ideas :D. I def want to try and create something similar to this! One suggestion would be to add another tool on the site that output's a channel's id when a user supplies a youtube channel's URL or just accept URLs in your channel id field and do the all the lookup of the channel ID in the backend. I know there are easy ways to do it while on the desktop. I wasn't able to quickly find a way to do it on the phone. Quickest way I found was to use a 3rd party site where I supply the URL and it outputs information about a channel including it's channel id. I am using iphone.
- devrimco 3y agoOh my goodness! I'm very happy that it worked out for you too! Thank you so much for the kind words! Yes I started working on the channel id part, gotta make that easier for sure. My wife has been complaining at me for that too :) I'm thinking both, name->id, and also, even video-url->channel-id. youtube made that very weird in their API, every query has costs, and finding by username is more expensive, there are old usernames, which are not channel custom-urls right now. very mixed-up. well, anyway long story short, I'll do it! Thank you for your message. Cheers.
- Dalewyn 3y agoYou're presumably operating out of Estonia, so American laws like COPPA[1] probably don't apply to you (disclaimer IANAL). I have no idea if the EU and/or Estonia have counterpart law(s). Nonetheless, the complete lack of a privacy policy at the time of writing this comment is concerning particularly because you are (explicitly!) interacting with and handling data concerning children. I would strongly advise consulting with a lawyer about what legal measures you need to comply with for a service like this. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Online_Privacy_Protection_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Online_Privacy_Prot...
- devrimco 3y agothank you i'm immediately starting to work on it. but actually it is not a kids software. it is a "latest video player from the channels you like" as a youtube companion. focus is that, not kids. but thank you i'll check what i need to do.
- devrimco 3y agoHi again. As this post is about to be buried deep within HN... I want to say thank you all for caring... Sorry, I messed up a little today. Didn't expect this much attention, and apparently, I wasn't ready :) I learned what "hug of death" is. Loved it. But I fixed what I messed up during the day. And now everything is working properly. So anyone had any trouble today registering or adding channels can do now. For any issue please ping me from any of the contact channels there. Some of you did. So thank you all. Cheers.
- kristianp 3y agoIs an app like this, that mainly is for watching videos in a skin, against youtube license agreement terms? I love this idea, want this, but for android!
- devrimco 3y agoyeah app is whole another jurisdiction :) but i use both on mobile and tablet as an icon on desktop. faster, easier to update, no request any security permissions, as it does not need, plain simple player website. Via add to homescreen on android, https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/ouILWN1_-vjtYjmf_4ogCXuQVxU=/750x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/004_create-shortcut-on-android-5193016-86aeefdc198d4d3793226e4811631b01.jpg https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/ouILWN1_-vjtYjmf_4ogCXuQVxU=/7...
- kristianp 3y agoThanks. What about the web version? Isn't it against youtube policies too?
- devrimco 3y agono. this is not against youtube policies. i checked it couple of times. as it simply embeds videos, without forcing anything. and is not the same experience as youtube. it is a companion. and also i'm using the api very conservatively, pre-calculated every request. but time will show. you can't guess big tech. i meant with mobile applications the bureaucracy, the development necessary and the update cycle and even the size of the icons matter to be approved. and they may accept and they may not. so not only youtube, play store and ios store policies interfere. i can't say i like it. there's already a fight against them from other big-techs against the app stores, even the EU is against their monopoly. well, i'll shut up now :)
- xk3 3y agoI made something kinda similar to this but not marketed to kids, it does not require an account, and it is open source: https://unli.xyz/eject/ https://unli.xyz/eject/ https://github.com/chapmanjacobd/library-lite https://github.com/chapmanjacobd/library-lite
- b800h 3y agoBrilliant idea. YouTube Kids isn't safe for kids IMO, I've said it loads. Good luck. Do you curate the videos or just prevent autosuggestions and autoplay?
- devrimco 3y agoYes! Definitely agree. I don't curate videos. I just let people watch the channels they want to watch. Add a channel, it plays that channel. Add multiple, it shuffles them. There are no autosuggestions. There are great creators on Youtube. But algos do not let people reach them. Youtube is a beautiful archive and a great search engine. But, you don't watch a search engine :)))