Just like the title says; I’m interested in being able to sleep to YouTube without ads, but I don’t fuck with their business practices and they don’t deserve my money. Unfortunately, I’m also a very inexperienced pirate and I’m unsure where to look.

Edit: for clarity I’m using a OnePlus 7 Pro with earbuds

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.mlEnglish
    89·
    1 year ago

    If on Android, NewPipe is a great app. Blocks all ads and let’s you create playlists and stuff.

    Firefox mobile with Ublock add-on installed is good too.

    • dog@suppo.fiEnglish
      418·
      1 year ago

      This. Unlike ReVanced that requires a bunch of hacks* to work, Newpipe is easy to simply download and install.

      Has all the features premium youtube has, and unlike Vanced, it uses Youtube’s API to serve the content, which means Google can’t shut them down (They tried, and lost the case).

      Because Newpipe simply doesn’t use the advertisement API, you’ll never* see ads in Newpipe.

      HOWEVER. Please keep in mind Newpipe is currently in spaghetti code form, and that means fixing a bug causes more to appear. They’re working on a complete rewrite, aka Newpipe 2, but it’ll take a while. In the meantime, you may encounter some issues if you’re on the road for example.

      I’ve had Newpipe shit itself almost always while biking, due to constant mobile connection tower changes. For those errors you need to open the app up again, and press play. It unfortunately doesn’t respond to bluetooth play/stop signals in that state.

      • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        31·
        1 year ago

        Have you tried Revanced Manager? I’m not rooted and can pretty much just download the proper version from apkmirror, select it from storage, and run the patch and then install it.

      • PirateForDaLolz@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        What issues do you have with ReVanced? It works great! The only thing that’s kind of a pain in the ass is that if you’re rooted using KernelSU, you have to repatch the app every time you reboot. Fortunately I usually only reboot once a month when the new OTA gets released for my phone.

        • LanyrdSkynrd@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          I’ve had issues that I’ve been able to work around.

          I have previously had the error, “settings could not be applied”, which I worked around by uninstalling my YouTube updates, installing the recommended version and clearing revanced manager data. I now get an error about not being able to load the original APK. I work around this by deleting the two apks in /data/abd/vanced before patching.

          I’m rooted and have to repatch on each reboot. Not complaining, just want to share my experience in case it helps others.

          I love revanced, and feel so thankful for it. I can’t afford YT premium, without revanced I would miss out on so much great content.

          • PirateForDaLolz@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Sounds very much like my experience: a wonderful project, but not without its flaws that are kind of annoying, but not a big deal for the price. :)

      • voxel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        revanced just works ™ though. everything aorks seamlessly and it allows yoi to get yt recommendations.

        • dog@suppo.fiEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I’d rather not be on the receiving end of Google cracking down on ReVanced users. It’ll happen eventually.

          • voxel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            they’ll just sue or dmca the developers again
            or just keep breaking the app, like they’re doing right now. (issues are usually resolved in less then 4 days though)

            also if they already have you addicted to YouTube it’s much more beneficial to force you off revanced back into official app rather then banning hundeds of thouthands of channels.

      • masterofn001English
        1·
        1 year ago

        When vanced went dark I downloaded a bunch to try. Libretube, newpipe, clipious, and pipepipe.

        Mostly I’ve been using pipepipe. A fork of newpipe. It has seemed faster and less buggy from the start. It opens invidious links. It just seems to work better.

        While libretube has the best import/export options (it can import playlists and bookmarks etc) it can be incredibly buggy and clunky.

        • Bebo@reddthat.comEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Install the fdroid app from their official website, then download newpipe from fdroid. This way the app will automatically update whenever needed through fdroid app store.

    • hardypart@feddit.deEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      The best thing is that you can turn off the screen, so you can truly use it as a music player.

    • kostel_thecreedEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      For revanced you can download the recommended version of youtube off apkmirror, and microg can be installed without issue.

    • Kokesh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      27·
      1 year ago

      Not true. Untick MicroG component when installing and select root install. It runs on stock Google setup same as standard YT app.

      • mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        12·
        1 year ago

        Really lmao? It was requiring root because google won’t give your app with different package name the account details. Which android version and is original youtube pre installed/still there?

  • kadu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    496·
    1 year ago

    Ignore ReVanced, go for LibreTube. It uses Piped in the backend to access YouTube, and it’s got a really nice user interface on Android.

    It also automatically blocks ads, skips sponsored segments, supports downloads, PiP, background playing, subscriptions, comments, live videos.

    It doesn’t rely on shady alternative G services running in the background, doesn’t need you to modify any official APKs, it’s open source, and you can customize elements you want or do not want to see from YouTube. Give it a go.

    EDIT: And here are some bonuses it’s got over alternatives: customizable sleep timers, channel groups, subscriptions synced automatically with your desktop browser (via Piped), the ability to proxy and reroute your traffic to YouTube, full Shorts support, live comments for broadcasts.

    • Virkkunen@kbin.social
      201·
      1 year ago

      The problem is that LibreTube, NewPipe and others do not login or sync with your account. I really miss being able to save a video to my watch later playlist on my desktop, and later on watch it on my phone and it’ll be marked as watched everywhere

      • kadu@lemmy.world
        61·
        1 year ago

        With LibreTube that’s only partially true. It doesn’t sync with YouTube, but LibreTube on Android will sync with your favorite Piped instance on desktop, so if you also browse YouTube on desktop using Piped, you’ll get that experience of a synced subscriptions list. You can use Google Takeout to easily migrate from the main YouTube to Piped with all your subscriptions active.

        With NewPipe you’re correct - there’s no sync. You can import from Google, but there’s no mechanism to sync with a desktop version.

    • m-p{3}AEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Would be nice if I could sync my browsing history in a way that what I watch on desktop using my Piped account gets all merged, in a secure and private way of course.

    • dog@suppo.fiEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      How does LibreTube respond to fast-paced mobile connection changes?

      • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.mlEnglish
        12·
        1 year ago

        I’m not sure, but one workaround is to download the video ahead of time when you have a solid connection.

    • Jz5678910@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      One thing I’ll mention for those like me that use the feature regularly, you can’t cast natively from LibreTube.

  • voxel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    28·
    1 year ago

    Revanced. It’s an universal dex patcher, primarily targeting Youtube.
    it can remove ads and tracking and customize ui.

    • SasquatchBanana@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      1 year ago

      Didn’t Youtube nuke this app? A few months ago I started getting a message that I need to download the official app to watch Youtube videos.

      • kostel_thecreedEnglish
        12·
        1 year ago

        they nuked Vanced because they distributed a modified apk. Revanced is completely different, and it allows you to patch your own youtube apk with no ads, etc, avoiding legal issues. -> https://revanced.app

  • SergioFLS@feddit.clEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    If you’re willing to sacrifice the perks of using YT with a Google account (commenting, uploading videos, history and playlists saved in cloud, paid content, mostly anything else that might require an account), then I’d recommend NewPipe (especially the fork that incorporates SponsorBlock).

    Despite the sacrifices, you don’t actually need Play Services in order to use the app, and the playlists/history stuff is made up by storing that locally in your device. It’s FOSS under GPL, too!

    It also lets you watch other stuff that isn’t on YT (Soundcloud, CCC, Bandcamp, PeerTube and most likely others that I forgot), and even lets you download the stuff on them!

    • verysoft@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      NewPipe has the nicer layout for sure, but you have to use a fork for SponsorBlock, which means its behind on other fixes, most notably some audio track issues.