6 ms·

Show HN: Control Panel for YouTube

111 points by insin 3y ago

Hi HN, I recently released a new browser extension for YouTube, which in addition to the table stakes of hiding the existence of Shorts, hiding promoted content, automatically skipping ads, hiding useless/unused UI elements, hiding unwanted channels YouTube keeps recommending to you, letting you hide algorithmic suggestions etc. etc., makes other changes I've always wanted as a user, in the same vein as one of my other extensions, Control Panel for Twitter. The most significant of those is attempting to make your Subscriptions page more like an Inbox, by hiding videos you've already watched (with a configurable watch %), videos you're never going to watch (like live streams and multi-hour stream VODs - if you follow any gaming channels which started co-streaming to YouTube after a recent Twitch policy change), videos you literally can't watch (Upcoming), and improving the handling of videos hidden using YouTube's built-in Hide functionality, then finally filling in the gaps created by all those hidden videos, so unwatched content you're interested in (since you didn't Hide it yet!) floats to the top of your Subscriptions. Desktop and mobile versions of YouTube are both supported, with some version-specific features, e.g. it significantly improves the Subscriptions and Search page layout when doing some comfy-mode browsing of the mobile version on an iPad or other tablet in portrait mode (unfortunately the iOS version is still stuck in App Review limbo, despite the macOS version - which contains the exact same web extension code - being approved on initial submission almost 2 weeks ago). Part of the reason for finally making this (I've been meaning to improve the Subscriptions page for ages) was YouTube starting to go after uBlock Origin, which I can now disable on YouTube if it becomes necessary, without seeing any promoted content or ads. Website: https://jbscript.dev/control-panel-for-youtube Source: https://github.com/insin/control-panel-for-youtube

anigbrowl 3y ago
I like it in general, but by default it also hides the play control on videos (at least, live streams) which is a problem. I had to stop the video to change the screen size, adjust volume, turn captions on/off etc.
tamimio 3y ago
Your links are down within a day?!
quaunaut 3y ago
Taking a look at it now, and how it interacts with Enhancer for Youtube. The one thing I'm absolutely desperate for, is a fix to Youtube's Watch Later playlist issues. If you ever hit maximum on it, it seems permanently broken afterward to not delete watched videos- which means the only way to delete videos is manually, behind a 3-dot menu per video. Since the playlist max size is 5000, that'd be a minimum 10,000 clicks, and since the 3 dot menu only shows up once you're over a video, a certain level of hunting too. I tried to make an extension for this once, but bungled it pretty bad so it'll take another effort sometime. Youtube's my primary content source outside of games, so for me it hurts pretty bad.
- browningstreet 3y ago
  I would love better playlist controls for Youtube. I do a lot of playlist shaping and even their web interface is broken -- for instance, if you have a playlist with 100 items on it and you drag-n-drop to re-order, the visual order doesn't match the saved playlist order. I then re-load the playlist and have to scroll back down. I'd also like to shuffle certain playlists, not in playback, but the way it's stored.
- awslattery 3y ago
  There is a "Removed watched videos" option in the three-dot-menu for the playlist itself on desktop at least. I have to do this every so often, and this is a very welcome feature as I used to do it as you describe.
  - quaunaut 3y ago
    Yeah, that's literally what I'm talking about being broken. It hasn't worked for me for over 2 years.
- modeless 3y ago
  My pet peeve is that if you start playing a video by clicking on it in the watch later playlist it will start wherever you left off, but then if you let it proceed to the next video it will start at the beginning of that one, forever erasing your watch position for that video. In general the saving of watch position is very frustrating on YouTube. There are a lot of bugs. They need an explicit way to see exactly which parts you've watched. Has anyone made a "watch later" queue that is site-agnostic? I'd love to be able to add Twitter videos, Spotify podcasts, YouTube clips, etc to a single "watch later" queue.
Saris 3y ago
Looks pretty useful! Does it have the option to automatically make the player full size? YT defaults to the smaller one with related stuff on the right which is always annoying.
starik36 3y ago
I would love a feature that if I change the speed on a video, the setting sticks across all videos on that specific channel.
- jimt1234 3y ago
  Yes, please!!! ^^^
sevenf0ur 3y ago
Turning off video history will disable recommendations and shorts which improves my experience. An extension like this is right up my alley.
aantix 3y ago
Can I hide all videos with “Minecraft” in the title? Or anything that references MrBeast?
- jswny 3y ago
  Just hit “not interested” on those, the YouTube algorithm is really good at not showing you stuff you tell it not to
  - vmfunction 3y ago
    but I want it to hide on the client side.
    - wholinator2 3y ago
      Out of curiosity, why?
      - vincheezel 3y ago
        I’m not OP but I use YouTube a lot. I would assume two reasons: Some people would rather scalp themselves than create a google account (valid) Even when logged in and using the “Not interested” or the “don’t recommend channel” button, YouTube will sometimes straight up ignore you.
  - aantix 3y ago
    The issue is that there’s an infinite number of channels that do Minecraft videos. It’s like playing whack-a-trying to hide all the Minecraft channels. I want to hide the topic, not an individual channel.
    - striking 3y ago
      There are two options. "Not interested" nudges the algorithm away from the topic while "Don't recommend <type> from this channel" immediately hides the channel from recommendations. If your nudges don't feel effective enough, you can also manage your view history. Removing any Minecraft videos you may have accidentally watched from your history will help hide them from future recommendations.
carlosjobim 3y ago
I needed to do this to make the plugin work after purchasing it through the App Store on OS X: 1. Restart Safari 2. Activate the plugin 3. Add the button to the toolbar and click it once Only after this did it function. You also need to open the plugin options from your Safari preferences to see all options, they will be cut off if you click the toolbar icon. To the creator: Congratulations on making a very cool plugin! It fixes all of the worst annoyances of YouTube, meaning that I can start using the website instead of FreeTube and thus distribute my juicy subscription money to the creators I watch.
- insin 3y ago
  Both of the FAQs currently on the site are variations on "why does it not work in Safari?" (extensions won't run in PWAs saved to your home screen either, you have to manually create your own Shortcut if you want a home screen bookmark to open YouTube with the extension active), it also has a video example of enabling the extension: https://jbscript.dev/control-panel-for-youtube#safari-faq-post-install https://jbscript.dev/control-panel-for-youtube#safari-faq-po... The most recent Firefox version of the extension actually reverted it from MV3 to MV2 because Firefox doesn't prompt you for permissions on install either for MV3 extensions, so it was also disabled by default.
insin 3y ago
Thanks for the feedback and feature requests, I've added them as enhancements for upcoming versions, feel free to add your own here: https://github.com/insin/control-panel-for-youtube/issues https://github.com/insin/control-panel-for-youtube/issues I also have a Hacker News extension if you've ever wanted to be able to easily follow new comments on stories over time, and stop accidentally flagging/hiding stories while scrolling on mobile: https://jbscript.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news https://jbscript.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news
slantaclaus 3y ago
Why is this post greyed out
- anigbrowl 3y ago
  OP text is always grey.

111 points by insin 3y ago

anigbrowl 3y ago

I like it in general, but by default it also hides the play control on videos (at least, live streams) which is a problem. I had to stop the video to change the screen size, adjust volume, turn captions on/off etc.

tamimio 3y ago

Your links are down within a day?!

quaunaut 3y ago

Taking a look at it now, and how it interacts with Enhancer for Youtube. The one thing I'm absolutely desperate for, is a fix to Youtube's Watch Later playlist issues. If you ever hit maximum on it, it seems permanently broken afterward to not delete watched videos- which means the only way to delete videos is manually, behind a 3-dot menu per video. Since the playlist max size is 5000, that'd be a minimum 10,000 clicks, and since the 3 dot menu only shows up once you're over a video, a certain level of hunting too. I tried to make an extension for this once, but bungled it pretty bad so it'll take another effort sometime. Youtube's my primary content source outside of games, so for me it hurts pretty bad.

browningstreet 3y ago
I would love better playlist controls for Youtube. I do a lot of playlist shaping and even their web interface is broken -- for instance, if you have a playlist with 100 items on it and you drag-n-drop to re-order, the visual order doesn't match the saved playlist order. I then re-load the playlist and have to scroll back down. I'd also like to shuffle certain playlists, not in playback, but the way it's stored.
awslattery 3y ago
There is a "Removed watched videos" option in the three-dot-menu for the playlist itself on desktop at least. I have to do this every so often, and this is a very welcome feature as I used to do it as you describe.
- quaunaut 3y ago
  Yeah, that's literally what I'm talking about being broken. It hasn't worked for me for over 2 years.
modeless 3y ago
My pet peeve is that if you start playing a video by clicking on it in the watch later playlist it will start wherever you left off, but then if you let it proceed to the next video it will start at the beginning of that one, forever erasing your watch position for that video. In general the saving of watch position is very frustrating on YouTube. There are a lot of bugs. They need an explicit way to see exactly which parts you've watched. Has anyone made a "watch later" queue that is site-agnostic? I'd love to be able to add Twitter videos, Spotify podcasts, YouTube clips, etc to a single "watch later" queue.

Saris 3y ago

Looks pretty useful! Does it have the option to automatically make the player full size? YT defaults to the smaller one with related stuff on the right which is always annoying.

starik36 3y ago

I would love a feature that if I change the speed on a video, the setting sticks across all videos on that specific channel.

jimt1234 3y ago
Yes, please!!! ^^^

sevenf0ur 3y ago

Turning off video history will disable recommendations and shorts which improves my experience. An extension like this is right up my alley.

aantix 3y ago

Can I hide all videos with “Minecraft” in the title? Or anything that references MrBeast?

jswny 3y ago
Just hit “not interested” on those, the YouTube algorithm is really good at not showing you stuff you tell it not to
- vmfunction 3y ago
  but I want it to hide on the client side.
  - wholinator2 3y ago
    Out of curiosity, why?
    - vincheezel 3y ago
      I’m not OP but I use YouTube a lot. I would assume two reasons: Some people would rather scalp themselves than create a google account (valid) Even when logged in and using the “Not interested” or the “don’t recommend channel” button, YouTube will sometimes straight up ignore you.
- aantix 3y ago
  The issue is that there’s an infinite number of channels that do Minecraft videos. It’s like playing whack-a-trying to hide all the Minecraft channels. I want to hide the topic, not an individual channel.
  - striking 3y ago
    There are two options. "Not interested" nudges the algorithm away from the topic while "Don't recommend <type> from this channel" immediately hides the channel from recommendations. If your nudges don't feel effective enough, you can also manage your view history. Removing any Minecraft videos you may have accidentally watched from your history will help hide them from future recommendations.

carlosjobim 3y ago

I needed to do this to make the plugin work after purchasing it through the App Store on OS X: 1. Restart Safari 2. Activate the plugin 3. Add the button to the toolbar and click it once Only after this did it function. You also need to open the plugin options from your Safari preferences to see all options, they will be cut off if you click the toolbar icon. To the creator: Congratulations on making a very cool plugin! It fixes all of the worst annoyances of YouTube, meaning that I can start using the website instead of FreeTube and thus distribute my juicy subscription money to the creators I watch.

insin 3y ago
Both of the FAQs currently on the site are variations on "why does it not work in Safari?" (extensions won't run in PWAs saved to your home screen either, you have to manually create your own Shortcut if you want a home screen bookmark to open YouTube with the extension active), it also has a video example of enabling the extension: https://jbscript.dev/control-panel-for-youtube#safari-faq-post-install https://jbscript.dev/control-panel-for-youtube#safari-faq-po... The most recent Firefox version of the extension actually reverted it from MV3 to MV2 because Firefox doesn't prompt you for permissions on install either for MV3 extensions, so it was also disabled by default.

insin 3y ago

Thanks for the feedback and feature requests, I've added them as enhancements for upcoming versions, feel free to add your own here: https://github.com/insin/control-panel-for-youtube/issues https://github.com/insin/control-panel-for-youtube/issues I also have a Hacker News extension if you've ever wanted to be able to easily follow new comments on stories over time, and stop accidentally flagging/hiding stories while scrolling on mobile: https://jbscript.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news https://jbscript.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news

slantaclaus 3y ago

Why is this post greyed out

anigbrowl 3y ago
OP text is always grey.