this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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I'm using a stock Samsung Galaxy 8 phone right now (with Android 10) and I disabled the YouTube app. I was basically sick of its s***. Since then, I never sign in to the app/site, and so may aspects of using the site are much better now.

  • Everything is faster, since they don't know me / aren't tracking as much.
  • I always open YT in Firefox Focus, which doesn't ever keep cookies or history each time I close it, so there's no history for YT to mine each time I visit again.
  • I'm pretty sure I see fewer ads since I don't have a deep history for YT to mine / target.
  • More random suggestions from YT means I am mostly broken out of the bubble caused by their tracking. I find new, interesting music, for instance, now, from the suggestions.
  • Hitting "back" in the browser means I go back wherever I was before, not to the YT home page (like the app used to do to me)

I still visit the site often, and appreciate all the good music and channels I watch, but now it's overall a much more positive experience, more like YT was a few years ago versus the horrible mess it's become recently.

I'd still appreciate any other tips anyone has for making YT visits even more enjoyable.

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[–] AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world 89 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

Pro-tip: use NewPipe and you'll never want to go back. You can install it from F-Droid.

[–] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 44 points 1 year ago (5 children)

YouTube ReVanced is also a must-have for Android users.

[–] TJDetweiler@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 year ago

For whatever it's worth, and whoever reads this, I've had extensive buffering issues with Vanced/Revanced for months. Recently purged the MicroG and vanced software, and reinstalled the Revanced Extended, and it works flawlessly!

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[–] knobbysideup@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The only problem with newpipe is you can't log in and manage your own stuff.

[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On the other I love that you don't need an account to be able to "subscribe" for a custom feed, group channels into custom categories, or make playlists. And all being able to get backed up locally.

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[–] AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

You can have playlists and subscriptions but it's just that they're going to be local.

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[–] IronSage@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm enjoying LibreTube as well

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[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yah, I use Piped and https://yewtu.be/ now too.

But the last time I tried to use NewPipe, it was slowwww and would frequently be broken by changes made by YT. I'll have to check it out again.

[–] wason@lemmy.ninja 5 points 1 year ago

If you already use Piped and have Android then you can use LibreTube, a client for Piped

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[–] 1984 52 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Install Newpipe and you get an even better YouTube experience. Can be a Holy Shit experience for people who never knew YouTube before it became shit.

[–] liamwb@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's also YouTube revanced as well

[–] filcuk@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 year ago

Literally would not visit youtube otherwise, as proven by the brief pause after Vanced stopped working.

[–] LouisGarbuor@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Another app is LibreTube, although it uses piped, which I kinda dislike as it means (depending on the instance you connect to) videos load slower and the subscriptions don't all get refreshed.

I know there is a toggle for disabling piped, but the subscription issue doesn't seem to get affected.

[–] cRazi_man@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

There's a fork of NewPipe with sponsor block. I'd highly recommended getting that.

The equivalent on your PC would be an app called freetube

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[–] VioletteRei@lemmy.world 49 points 1 year ago (13 children)

I don't understand people not wanting recommandations based on ehat they watch... I discovered so much great channel because of it

[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

My issue was just that YT puts me in a bubble where it thinks I want to be. But then you only see videos like the ones you've been watching - a bubble. Imo, it's better to see lots of different videos.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

YT knows I have ADHD so it cycles through a few trying to guess my mood. It's kind of frightening how satisfied I am with it tbh

[–] VioletteRei@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

That's true. But personally, if I want something different, I will simply search on DuckDuck "Reddit good "something" Youtube channels" and I will find a lot of things. I did it for horror channels, I start watching a lot of them and Youtube then show me other horror channels that I didn't see before. And when i'm bored of the same subject, I rinse and repeaf

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[–] lowleveldata@programming.dev 12 points 1 year ago

It's too repetitive. I want to see videos other than 5 hours elden ring speedrun/challenges sometimes too, thanks.

[–] aaaa@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For me it's because I don't use YouTube for that. I don't watch channels or personalities. If I go to YouTube, I'm there searching for something specific.

And when I find the video that shows me how to open my key fob to replace the battery, I'm not interested in a series of key fob videos. If I watch a video related to a news story, I'm not interested in all the reaction videos or analyses by people who don't know what they're talking about. I'm most certainly not interested in any other video with a thumbnail of someone with their mouth agape at something

I don't want it suggesting more of them, and I certainly don't want it automatically advancing to some other video after it's done. All I want is a video host that plays the videos I asked to watch. Everything else is just a reminder that the kind of videos they push are the exact kinds of videos I don't want to watch.

They get in the way, they draw attention to the wrong things, and they encourage people to make more of the kinds of videos that get in the way of finding the actual useful information

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[–] mcmoor@bookwormstory.social 11 points 1 year ago

I have accidentally stumbled on "default" YouTube and it's horrible af. Clickbait and fake news all over. It could be better, but I'm very grateful for my current feed.

[–] angrymouse@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

I can understand both, sometimes YouTube just force me in a loophole of shit

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[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Firefox for android supports uBlock which blocks all youtube add btw. I've been using the website as my YouTube client for nearly a year now

[–] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A Firefox install without uBlock is half baked. Also, Firefox Preview let's you use any addon, including Sponserblock.

[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

any addon? like ones usually only on PC? 🥺

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[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 33 points 1 year ago

I always open YT in Firefox Focus, which doesn’t ever keep cookies or history each time I close it, so there’s no history for YT to mine each time I visit again.

This is not true. Google doesn't much care about cookies; they employ far more effective means of fingerprinting.

[–] scbasteve7@lemm.ee 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Base YouTube is a cancer experience. I used vanced back when it existed. The second they shut down, I stopped using mobile YouTube and just used it on Firefox PC with ad block. When I heard reVanced was a thing, I downloaded it and it's essentially just like vanced.

I will never use YouTube without adblock unless they either change their monetization system, or ad system.

[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I used to use the YT app before migration to Revanced. The main advantages I've experienced so far: -No ads -Defaults to auto skip video intros and sponsorships -Ability to disable shorts

Personally disabling shorts was the selling point for me, I'd find myself clicking one on an interesting topic then getting sucked in and distracted from the original video.

[–] python@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Came here to say that exact same thing! Shorts are the bane of my existence, whenever I open my real Youtube App instead of Revanced (still need it to Cast to my Chromecast sometimes), there's a solid 50/50 chance that I get sucked in by shorts and scroll them for hours. It's ridiculous, they aren't even interesting most of the time and I learn nothing from it, but it just keeps happening :/

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[–] wholeofthemoon@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I just want to disable Shorts!

[–] uranos@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 year ago (5 children)
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[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I removed shorts and for a while my life was better until I got arrested.

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[–] sznio@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

If you're using Firefox, install uBlock as well. You can also add the YouTube website as a shortcut to your desktop.

[–] Skimmer@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Side tangent but god, just unbelievable how an app like YouTube would ever be a system app on Stock that you can't just uninstall without needing to go through hoops like ADB. Samsung includes so much fuckery on their variants of Android, but to be fair, I believe even on stock Pixels, YouTube is a system app as well, so can't even entirely blame them for this case. Still unacceptable and insane to me.

Stock Android just sucks, can't see myself ever going back to it unless I absolutely had to. Props to you for making it work.

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[–] netchami@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)
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[–] ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Somewhat off topic, but related question for everyone: some time ago on Lemmy I saw somebody making a list of awesome Firefox extensions that would make the general browsing experience better. I was not smart and installed some add-ons right away and I forgot their names

I usually have unblock origin, no script, privacy badger always on, but I seem to remember one or two more that sounded cool, like one that should reject all cookies everywhere and never make me click them

Do you have cool recommendations?

[–] ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sponsor block, because sponsor segments are ads and darkreader because dark mode is just better

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[–] xnileap@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Some other plugins I would recommend: Decentraleyes- prevents tracking from CDN Sponsorblock- skips youtube sponsored segments Clearurls- makes the url field in browser cleaner by removing tracking segments Dark Reader- dark theme for websites Soundfixer- change volume for the webpage User-agent switcher and manager- pretty useful user agent switcher Violentmonkey- one of many script managers. You can download scripts from greasyfork, etc.

And some other plugins that are interesting: Flagfox- shows flag for the location of the website Terms and Service; Didn't Read- shows you the terms of service of the website, compiled by volunteers Bypass Paywalls Clean- bypasses paywalls of news websites. Unfortunately it has been removed from Firefox plugins website so you would have to download it via the plugin author's gitlab

Most of the plugins are good to use on Android too. You just need to make a plugin collection and select it in the Fennec browser. Having ublock origin, Dark Reader, and Violentmonkey makes browsing on Android so much better

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[–] ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Our TV has a YT app on it and I never sign in. I have way better experience with it because it randomly suggests stuff that the algorithm would probably think isn't something I like and yet it TOTALLY is something I like.

This is the problem with all these attempts at AI. They don't have the capacity to be actually random when they're using large databases of accumulated input from us.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the non logged in version I'm experiencing is also constrained by my prior choices, but it seems like the data they're holding is much smaller which allows for better chances at a random find.

Plus my kids get on there and search for their weird gamer streamer blah blah BS too which I'm sure really throws a curve ball.

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[–] macallik@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

I use NewPipe and what has helped me the most is not having to deal w/ the recommendation algorithm.

I reset my subscriptions to only be the most relevant feeds from YouTube and then I only check the subscription page. I've consciously curated the feed to be more productive and I'm much less likely to get distracted when watching videos

[–] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (15 children)

I’m pretty sure I see fewer ads since I don’t have a deep history for YT to mine / target.

I used normal FF with ublock. I never see ads at all. Can you add extensions to Firefox Focus?

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