Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ @lemmy.dbzer0.com moosetwin @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 yr. ago

What alternate Youtube frontends are there? And which ones do you recommend?

I've heard of piped due to the piped-link bot, but I am curious about others.

90 comments

Louis Rossman just released Grayjay! His video about it is here
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  It doesn't? Louis spends quite a bit of time going over why they aren't fully open source and how they've arrived at that result.
- Only on android :/ i thought it was going to be a progressive web app
  
  I almost switched to iPhone, thankfully this came out to show me why that is a bad idea. I just need to de-gpogle.
- Yow! that looks pretty awesome. I installed it and added the Nebula plugin... wonder if there's a CuriosityStream one as well?
  
  Can you tell what payment options they offer? I can't find info on the website, and my options are rather limited. Thank you!
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  here
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
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- Just want to add to your yatte this source/instance this gives you a lot of instances to start with so you don’t need to add them manually.
  
  https://r.yattee.stream/manifest-invidious-piped.json
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I use freetube on linux, newpipe on android.
- Check out LibreTube on Android!
GrayJay just came out into the testing phase. It not only supportsYouTubee but also Nebula, Odysee, Twitch, PeerTube and a few others with more to come. Works great so far. grayjay.app. Built by Futo, a nonprofit company which Louis Rossmann works for. His video here
- Looks like a good option, unfortunately it would not run for me on an Android emulator in Windows. (LDPlayer 5)
  
  If you're on Windows 10 or 11 just install it natively with WSA. You might have to look up a tutorial. I've yet to have a compatibility issue
GrayJay just launched and it's fucking fantastic.

It combines YouTube and Twitch into one platform in a really intuitive way. Has its own comment system and rating system for videos. No ads obviously. It's a whole fucking thing and it's incredible.

https://grayjay.app/index.html
- and it's not free software. only source available with a license that doesn't allow forking.
  
  And they do it so they can take down malicious copycats on Google Play
  
  So what's the actual problem is? It's just a front end to other platforms, they will not lock you in and than break the app. You can use it and if it goes bad you switch to other front end. I would understand the 'not free' objections if it was a tool you introduce into our workflow that would later be hard to replace. Here there's no lock in. What do you care if it can be forked?
- Except you have to give one app credentials for all of your platforms. It's also 335MB!?
  
  Credentials? What are you talking about? There is not sign in or signup required for the app at all.
  
  Time to upgrade if your phone can't handle 350MB lol
  
  It's the universal build. Download for your architecture (arm64) which is 127 mb
You'll find a lot of answers in this thread: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/6385210

(I used Piped (https://piped.video) with LibreTube (https://libretube.dev/))
FreeTube https://freetubeapp.io/
SmartTube is excellent on our NVidia Shield. Not sure what other platforms it works on.
- Seconding SmartTube on android TV. No ads, can automatically skip all sorts of content in videos (spoken ads, self-promotion, introduction segments, etc. etc. etc.) I dread the day it stops working.
Best overall SmartTube for Android TV and NewPipe with SponsorBlock for Android.
- Thanks, been looking for something for TV!
- Or LibreTube for Android.
I came across this website thanks to someone sharing it here, so I thought I’d do the same: https://fmhy.pages.dev/storage/#youtube-frontends
Newpipe for Android. Hands down the best iv used.
- I just tried it earlier but was taken aback that I couldn't find any way to login. Is that meant to be that way?
  
  Yes, your info is stored locally so you dont need to login to the YouTube API, i use newpipe to watch the videos and read some comments, not to interact or upload videos since that's impossible on newpipe
  
  Yes
- Have you tried LibreTube?
  
  I have heard about it, but does It have this?
NewPipe SponsorBlock
Freetube, Individious, Piped, CloudTube, PokeTube, Tubo, Yattee are the main ones I know of. If you want be automatically redirected to alternative youtube frontends installed Lib Redirect.
YouTube revanced works super well.
Invidious
I've been enjoying Piped for awhile now; it actually shows me a feed that's exclusively my subscriptions and has SponsorBlock built in.
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Can someone explain to me why I want the video proxied vs the video coming directly from YT via a front end? I've used YouTube Vanced in the past and it was awesome when it worked
- Get revanced, it works now.
- Its for privacy. This way youtube doesnt get your ip and has more difficulty figuring out who you are
How about alternatives to Youtube?
- Most alternatives are pretty great, but they can never have the amount of content and the reach that youtube has. Youtube has a monopoly and they know it. They can do whatever they want, because you can't leave.
  
  urge for h.266 intensifies
- Yes, I love odysee and bit chute for exemple, people just need to go there instead just like the migration from Reddit to Lemmy so it can grow bigger.
I'm self-hosting Piped and couldn't be happier. Clean, distraction free and, importantly, private. No data mining. Importing your subscriptions from a Google Takeout dump is simple.

LibreTube for Android is my mobile client, and talks to my Piped server without any issues. The only thing missing at this stage is a client for my Chromecast GTVs. For those, I still watch YouTube with SmartTubeNext, which means keeping two sets of subscriptions in sync. A little frustrating, but relatively painless, for the privacy benefits.
Been using revanced for a while - had no idea there were this many alternatives. I like revanced though, especially with stube on Google tv.
I use songtube on android
Invidious. If you look up invidious instances you can find plenty of them and choose one that’s in your country so it’s nice and fast. Sometimes they take an extra second to load but there are no ads so it’s worth it
I can only recommend piped sadly, Invidious still make you connect to Google servers and do not proxy the video for you.
- If you don't see the option in the settings, you might have to try another instance, it is a feature but instances can disable it for obvious reasons.
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On android i like newpipe + sponsorblock and clipious. Id use clipious all the time but it sometimes doesnt play and then i fall back on newpipe. Newpipe has downloading too.

I dont use youtube much on desktop but when i do i use invidious

Oh and i use smartubenext on android tv
YouTube vanced, I just had a very sad few years on iOS, boy did I miss YouTube vanced
- Vanced is dead
  
  ReVanced is a retooling of Vanced. Other commenters have also recommended Revanced

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