these apps do not use any official API. if they used it, they would be obliged to comply with the terms of services that most likely force them to show ads or track the users or some other bullshit.
of course these unofficial viewers break from time to time, but in my experience they have been super quick releasing patches fixing it and the user experience is way way better than the official web or app. Fast UI without bloat, no ads, no algorithms, etc.
I recently migrated to NewPipe/SponsorBlock from Libretube and can concur that once you migrate your old subs from the csv google is required to send you, the experience is incredible on either platform.
This plus using invidious with rss feeds and yt-dlp/sponsorblock on desktop, and I’ve kept up with all my favorite creators without having visited the Youtube site, seen an ad, or heard a sponsor or a call to action in years.
Oh, and on Android, iif you view this article using Mull with NoScript and Ublock on, content is visible wuth no ads.
Add in a bypass paywalls filter list to ublock and yeah…internet is usable again, lol.
yeah same for me. Completely moved away from google and only have the account for youtube, and I use that only with either firefox or safari on my mobile devices with an adblocker.
You can’t cast to Chromecast (non-googleTV if that matters) from Firefox mobile, also pull to refresh doesn’t work in browser, and they dont support push notifications for uploads. Revanced works great so I see no reason to switch, and it’s based off of the official YouTube APK so you’re only logging into Google play services, and you get the same native app experience you’re used to with all the addons you’d get from browser extensions built in (adblock, shorts block, sponsorblock, return dislike, background play, etc.)
I don’t think there’s anything that YT in Firefox mobile can do that revanced can’t, but revanced gives you cast support (through the official cast shim that supports CEC for pause, play, stop using the TV remote unlike doing screen mirroring of your phone where you can’t use your phone for anything else while mirroring) and other niceties like notifications and one tap to newpipe player / download video file through newpipe. It’s only a benefit to use revanced over the mobile web.
With Firefox on mobile I can use my personal uBlock filter list to deshitify the search results. That alone makes it superior to Revanced for me (still use it from time to time, but every time I search for something I feel the urge to puke).
It looks pretty much like the app, I get recommendations like in the app, can watch my subscriptions like in the app, can see comments, video or fullscreen mode. Don’t know about you but for me this just feels like the app.
They break all the time but they always fix them. LibreTube has been broken for the past few days but they’ll fix it soon enough
That just sounds awful and would be a reason for me to stay far away from these apps
A dedicated app is prettier, more functional, and (feels) faster than Firefox + Ublock or Newpipe, actually plays in the background (seamlessly, I might add… looking at you, Newpipe), and allows for more player options.
that’s maybe your opinion. I have absolute no problems with the look and feel of youtube in safari and I have all the functionality I need (play videos with screen off and on).
I don’t watch YT a lot on my phone, but Freetube for desktop and Newpipe for android (F-Droid) support offline subscriptions, playlists, history and downloads of video or audio, background playback and you can sync both apps.
I hate web apps and electron for performance (incl. memory) reasons and the gestures are simply better in the app, not to mention Haptic Touch and crashing due to out of memory on iOS
On the API, that’s why I use a patched client. YouTube isn’t that aggressive with pushing new versions so you install a patched version of the old version like uYouPlusExtra
Also, even when the address bar is hidden in Safari, there’s a much smaller but still existent bar
why installing something when you just can use your browser and get basically the same experience?
Also those apps will be useless when they mess around with the api just like reddit did.
these apps do not use any official API. if they used it, they would be obliged to comply with the terms of services that most likely force them to show ads or track the users or some other bullshit.
of course these unofficial viewers break from time to time, but in my experience they have been super quick releasing patches fixing it and the user experience is way way better than the official web or app. Fast UI without bloat, no ads, no algorithms, etc.
I recently migrated to NewPipe/SponsorBlock from Libretube and can concur that once you migrate your old subs from the csv google is required to send you, the experience is incredible on either platform.
This plus using invidious with rss feeds and yt-dlp/sponsorblock on desktop, and I’ve kept up with all my favorite creators without having visited the Youtube site, seen an ad, or heard a sponsor or a call to action in years.
Oh, and on Android, iif you view this article using Mull with NoScript and Ublock on, content is visible wuth no ads.
Add in a bypass paywalls filter list to ublock and yeah…internet is usable again, lol.
ok. im gonna stick with my browser solution, don’t need anything else and it works great.
i’m getting downvoted for this, lol 🤣
They don’t realise that it just looks like the app and behaves like YouTube premium with background play if you use Firefox or similar on your phone.
They probably imagine some clunky browsing experience in desktop mode.
Or they’re personally invested in all those apps that I wouldn’t trust my password to.
same for me. I wouldn’t trust my password to another unofficial app if I could use just my browser for the same experience.
It’s basically only for YouTube these days, since I got my official mailing away from Google, but still.
yeah same for me. Completely moved away from google and only have the account for youtube, and I use that only with either firefox or safari on my mobile devices with an adblocker.
You can’t cast to Chromecast (non-googleTV if that matters) from Firefox mobile, also pull to refresh doesn’t work in browser, and they dont support push notifications for uploads. Revanced works great so I see no reason to switch, and it’s based off of the official YouTube APK so you’re only logging into Google play services, and you get the same native app experience you’re used to with all the addons you’d get from browser extensions built in (adblock, shorts block, sponsorblock, return dislike, background play, etc.)
I don’t think there’s anything that YT in Firefox mobile can do that revanced can’t, but revanced gives you cast support (through the official cast shim that supports CEC for pause, play, stop using the TV remote unlike doing screen mirroring of your phone where you can’t use your phone for anything else while mirroring) and other niceties like notifications and one tap to newpipe player / download video file through newpipe. It’s only a benefit to use revanced over the mobile web.
With Firefox on mobile I can use my personal uBlock filter list to deshitify the search results. That alone makes it superior to Revanced for me (still use it from time to time, but every time I search for something I feel the urge to puke).
Because it’s absolutely not the same experience?
They break all the time but they always fix them. LibreTube has been broken for the past few days but they’ll fix it soon enough.
E: LibreTube is fixed temporarily by switching to HLS.
It looks pretty much like the app, I get recommendations like in the app, can watch my subscriptions like in the app, can see comments, video or fullscreen mode. Don’t know about you but for me this just feels like the app.
That just sounds awful and would be a reason for me to stay far away from these apps
Because the browser sucks more
A dedicated app is prettier, more functional, and (feels) faster than Firefox + Ublock or Newpipe, actually plays in the background (seamlessly, I might add… looking at you, Newpipe), and allows for more player options.
that’s maybe your opinion. I have absolute no problems with the look and feel of youtube in safari and I have all the functionality I need (play videos with screen off and on).
It is nearly identical to the app.
I don’t watch YT a lot on my phone, but Freetube for desktop and Newpipe for android (F-Droid) support offline subscriptions, playlists, history and downloads of video or audio, background playback and you can sync both apps.
It’s okay to have alternatives. I use NewPipe, Firefox+uBlock and sometimes a YouTube ReVanced app.
I hate web apps and electron for performance (incl. memory) reasons and the gestures are simply better in the app, not to mention Haptic Touch and crashing due to out of memory on iOS
On the API, that’s why I use a patched client. YouTube isn’t that aggressive with pushing new versions so you install a patched version of the old version like uYouPlusExtra
Also, even when the address bar is hidden in Safari, there’s a much smaller but still existent bar
How’s sponsor block?
Seems to be doing fine, I’m having no problems with it.