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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DeArrow: Extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails. It removes click-bait titles and thumbnails providing a cleaner Youtube.
- 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
- 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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I found this comment more useful than the OP. With Google getting ready to block ad blockers, I’m hoping this is a way to continue watching YT content.
looks like i may be heading back over to Firefox.
Reminder to all, Firefox on Android can use UBlock Origin. It’s an easy setup, no more ads.
Here’s a filter list for UBlock Origin that blocks out all YouTube Shorts.
Corollary, you can install Firefox Nightly and setup an addon collection on the FF website and use pretty much all desktop addons on your mobile Firefox browser.
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.
For non Firefox users, use kiwi browsers for chrome extensions or revanced
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
Brave browser on android has YouTube ad blocking by default.
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.
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This is the same on vanced
And sponsorblock built in, as well
Alternatively, the web app from piped.video is pretty great too. Works nicely on my phone
No tracking, no ads, no bullshit
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.
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.
Well I experienced it from time to time when YouTube changes some things. Actually haven’t faced it in a long time.
Do you have a guide or tutorial for this?
https://lemmy.world/c/revanced the master post has a guide
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.
Similarly if you’re on iPhone look up sideloadly and install uYouPlus
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
Nice catch, I edited the post. Thank you ! 👍
Good catch. Thanks for the clarification.
This extension
brings backcreates a new dislike pool of other people who also use the extension.Fixed that for you. It does not show you current youtube dislike counts, which is what people actually want.
If you use a script manager (Tampermonkey, Violentmonkey, Greasemonkey, Firemonkey) I can recommend some userscripts:
- Tabview for Youtube - condenses comments, description, playlists and chat into a neatly organised sidebar,
- YT Resource Unholder - improves how YT handles resources and improves performance,
- YT CPU Tamer - more performance improvements,
- YT AV1 - forces YT to use AV1 for all videos.
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’.
RYS is also similar to unhook but has more features
Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll give it a try.
Open source is a bonus.
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 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.
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
Works well for me, and I’ve been using it basically since the beginning.
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.
Also rec’ing ReVanced since Vanced died https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/comments/xlcny9/revanced_manager_guide_for_dummies/
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.
Agree. Enable only what you understand you should enable
More risk, more reward I say!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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=CAASAhABThen you can use it from the search bar like
yt testingand it will redirect you to this URL (replacing%swithtesting):https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=testing&sp=CAASAhABEDIT: 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.
For people on Apple devices and Safari, check these out: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app-bundle/fizzy-water-bundle/id1601247237
Vinegar is for YT and Baking Soda for the rest of the web. Little annoying the devs split them up but they are both great as they give you a basic video. No ads, overlays, nothing. It may seem like a small thing but man does it have a huge impact.
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.
NewPipe is more than enough.
Also a shoutout to Libretube. Much better UI and updates quickly. With the downside that it’s less reliable
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
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.
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