Android @lemmy.world perishthethought @lemm.ee 1 yr. ago

Smartest thing I've done this month: Disable the YouTube app

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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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?
- Sponsor block, because sponsor segments are ads and darkreader because dark mode is just better
  
  Thanks! I already use dark reader so much I've become a vampire and can't stand anything with white background!
- 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
  
  Mull is a superior fork of Fennec.
  
  Thanks for the heads up! I'll check that out
  
  Holy cow! This is a very long list of add-ons! I'll try them out, thanks! I didn't see either the Fennec or the Mull browsers on the Google Play Store. I suppose I need to install them separately
  
  Edit: grammar
  
  You're welcome!

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