Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

i constantly gotta swap invidious instances because youtube is being relentless in their war against invidious.

but the ui is awesome and I use it every day.

apparently freetube automatically uses a new invidious instance every time it starts up.
- It seems to be at random, and many of the instances don't work correctly. You're better off finding one that does, and setting it as default.
Invidious is awesome, if possible, self hosting one in docker is great and keeps it up to date
How do I go about doing that (finding a good one and setting it up)? Its been a month that either the video loads or it doesn't and when it does work it is extremely slow to the point I can't watch on 1080p.
- honestly I keep a tab open with the list of invidious instances open. because every day I usually have to change the instance. or swap it around.
  invidious is fighting youtube very hard, but youtube is fighting back. so its difficult to keep up with.
  i would keep an eye on the invidious instances list. and change to a different one if need be.
I just use native API and VPN

SmartTube beta on Android TV is fanfuckingtastic.

Ive been using it for years now and holy shit. Even if it doesnt blocked ads and even youtubers own ads, the app itself is FAR superior than anything what this vanilla youtube app is supposed to be.
- Even if it doesnt blocked ads and even youtubers own ads
  You mean even if it didn't? Because it definitely DOES and you're absolutely right about the rest
- Even just having Sponsorblock built-in changed my life!!
Can it be used on a "normal" android phone or just android tv?
- on Android phone you might wanna check out Tubular or LibreTube.
- It's a no for phones, set top (android) boxes only. My friend has had success running it on Windows 11 and casting to his TV.
+1
I love this app and would use it even if it didn't block ads. The user experience is just so much better than the regular YouTube TV app. I've sent a few donations to the developer to thank them for their work.
Don't forget Playlet for Roku!

Am I the only one that hates third-party clients for Desktop? They all have terrible UI and UX. Firefox + UBlock + Youtube is the way to go. For the phone it's NewPipe or Grayjay.

Personally I still use the Firefox + uBlock + SponsorBlock + YouTube combo on my phone too. Maybe if I watched more YouTube on my phone it'd be worth figuring out an app with a better mobile UI, but I like that it's a consistent experience anywhere I watch from.
Don't forget about Enhancer for YouTube, SponsorBlock, and DeArrow! They're all a must-have for desktop YT.
You forgot sponserblock, it's amazing!
If you use ublock origin and watch a lot, they'll eventually put your ip address on a list where you have to log in to watch anything. Newpipe seems to be able to circumvent this but yt-dlp can't. I haven't tried freetube but maybe freetube can circumvent that.
Firefox + UBlock + Youtube is the way to go.
Unless you don't like Google tracking everything you watch on youtube, that is.
- Let's be real, no matter how you're watching YouTube, if you're accessing the video directly and not cached through a third party server, Google is still tracking you.
Revanced app had the superior UI/UX.
Not because if taste, but because it is the YouTube UI that then allows you to add and remove stuff from the UI, getting away from all the user-hostile stuff. If you want to.
- Why had?
So, what do you not like about the Freetube's UI and UX?
I use the same combo on my phone without any issues or ads. Why use a client on the phone?
I use Firefox with ublock on desktop, works like a charm. My favourite on android is YouTube revanced
Revanced is great for mobile
- ReVanced isn't a third-party client though. It's patches applied to the official client.
I prefer just about every third-party UI to the official one...

Keep it quiet with the Freetube articles, I don't want it gone lol.

Created by deletor
Youtube/google/alphabet are almost certainly aware it exists already. The only real risk is too many people switching to it.
But even then there isn't much they can do to stop it's use. They can't tighten up or remove their api, but then page scraping will take over. They can obfuscation their page, but that will not work forever.
It's a cat and mouse game that is impossible to win for them.
- You know the same thing was said with Beeper's imessage on Android pytorch success. "Apple won't be able to change this. They'd have to change the very nature of imessage itself to block this!" And then, two days later it was blocked completely so, as much as I would hope Google couldn't block FreeTube, don't expect such huge successes without tempering expectation.
Deletor by created

The best part about FreeTube unlike other Third-Party clients is that it retains a better YouTube-like suggestions system for any videos you wanna watch next. Discoverability is still a very important thing for me

How does it do it better that yt?
- That's not what they said. They said it's better than other 3rd party clients because it's just like YouTube's suggestions.
And you can have multiple favorites lists.

I prefer NewPipe/Tubular so much that I don't even use my desktop for YouTube anymore.

NewPipe stopped working for me some time ago, switched over to rvx which seems to work fine.
- It stops working occasionally but they release fixed versions pretty fast.
- Try pipepipe, they update more often than OG newpipe/tubular
i would like to say I prefer Newpipe, but those guys have a pretty annoying bug that's been going on for years now and it's still not been fixed.
If you watch a video and then go back to a list and scroll up to the top, the app crashes.
you can run it on your desktop with waydroid btw

My lg tv is jailbroken so I have the ad blocked version of YouTube on it, but I was on my Chromecast with Google tv yesterday and decided to go back to the regular YouTube app since I was there.

I was watching a video of 20 minutes in length, and got one 30 second ad at the start; ok fine.

After 4 minutes, they decided to show me a 50 second unskippable ad.

I backed out of the video, and deleted the regular app.

Fuck Google.

How do you jb LG tv?
- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hsqYOoiT12Y
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zYoesrUsIj8
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mwU99mPRHZk
  https://old.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/sa78sv/your_lg_webos_smart_tv_can_now_be_jailbroken/

Oh shit, I just made the switch and I'm liking it. I just "favourite" things from my sub feed in one small window, and watch in the other, and it autoplays (if I want) so I can just start doing shit while the background vids keep playing. Honestly kinda more convienient than youtubes gui. It has sponsorblock built in too, which is nice

The recommendation algorithm is the reason I use YouTube. Well over half of the videos I'm watching are from channels I'm not even subscribed to. Ads can be blocked as always.

The recommendation algorithm is the reason I use YouTube.
This is an unpopular opinion on Lemmy (since it means Google has to track you) but I agree. I've discovered so many great channels, both small and large, through YouTube recommendations.

I wish it didn't use Electron.

Since they are integrating a web browser in the app, it kind of make sense here actually. For code editors though, not great...
- Since they are integrating a web browser in the app
  are they, though? I thought they just grab whatever data Invidious API fetches and display it with their method of choice, similar to how mobile clients for Invidious and Piped work. PlasmaTube manages to do similar thing without becoming a single purpose web browser.
- Since they are integrating a web browser in the app,
  You can do this in a better way by using something like Photino or Tauri that uses the OS' native browser engine. There's no need to bundle a browser with every app (like Electron does).

I agree; between it and Tubular, YouTube is usable again.

That said, someone pointed out that higher resolutions are not viewable on FreeTube. I hadn't noticed this until they mentioned it, and now I notice it constantly. I don't know why, but it's demonstratable: find a 4k video on Tubular, and open the same video on FreeTube, and only lower resolution versions are available.

Windows: FreeTube
Android: NewPipe
Roku: Playlet

The trifecta!

For some reason like recommendation algorithm, I still use youtube premium.

- If you use premium, the creators still get paid by YouTube for your views. If you use an ad blocker, they don't get any money from your views.
  When you see an ad on YouTube, the creator gets 55% of the revenue and YouTube gets the remaining 45%.
- I guess I have to ask the same question about freetube.

yeah I agree! My wife would hear bitchin me if we would watch something on her iphone as i would constantly point out the fucking ads.. I use in on my Fedora but sometimes (like once a month) I have a problem with the invidous instances. I wish there would be something similar to use on android, bu fortunately with Firefox& SponsorBlock it seems to block most of them...

I downloaded Newpipe from the Fdroid app store and it works very similar go freetube
as i would constantly point out the fucking ads.
Why would you do this?
Also, there are apps for invidious on Android.
- Because they seem to be insufficiently annoyed by them. So I'm helping. By pointing out the invasive garbage being spewed at us.
  At least that's how it seems to me.

Why does it want me to scan my ID? Wtf?

I enjoy the Android app. Wish the ui was a bit better tho, hard to navigate sometimes

I use Newpipe on android, you can try that. Install it using f-droid.
- Pipepipe is what I've been using since its like newpipe with sponsorblock. Also used grayjay, revanced, libretube and tubular
Use Grayjay!!

I would like Freetube 100x more if it had a web UI instead of a non-browser interface. A web UI with a companion extension to automatically redirect YT video links to it could be so seamless.

If it's hosting a server on the local network that would also provide a perfect solution to not having any way for view history or settings to automatically sync between different devices.

you might like Piped or Invidious with Libredirect addon.

I tried it there but my browser works better is my first impression, I'm using thorium with Ublock, YouTube enhanced and some other addons.

Did honestly just give this a test but I kept getting videos just freezing up for no reason.

YouTube recently rolled out changes that break these third party apps causing a 503 error. Other apps have patched this issue.
- Yeah I've removed it already and know all the antics YouTube has been doing as I use Smarttube on my Firetv.
  But yeah not very impressed with Freetube in comparison to even a browser and the more I read about it not being able to view age restricted and other content it's not for me especially with the constant freezes.

I just wish it supported tabs, I'd switch immediately if it did

They support separate windows if that changes things.
- Not for me

All they need now is an iOS/iPadOS app.

Can I see dislikes tho?

Yt in browser (ff+UBO) plays less than a minute, then stops. Freetube works. I hate google.

I use ff+uBO, and all works, never saw an ad. I am also using a VPN that blocks/filter ads, that might help.
- I don't see ads. The video just stops and will not load last about one minute.

ytfzf better (if you dont mind not reading comments lmao)

No Android version of it yet, eh? Damn.

ETA: I previously tried Vanced, but it didn't work correctly.

I hate linking to Reddit, but follow this guide for re-vanced on Android:
https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/comments/xlcny9/revanced_manager_guide_for_dummies/
- Thanks.
  I am trying Libretube via F-droid. So far so good.
There is an android version: https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/io.freetubeapp.freetube
However I prefer Grayjay: https://grayjay.app/
Other than grayjay there's newpipe
Try GrayJay, works great in my experience and has all the stuff (background play, no ads, downloads, etc). One issue I had with ReVanced was casting didn't always work for me, GrayJay seems to be able to cast to my shield without missing a beat.

Have been using it a while since the browser fiasco. It's awesome but the workflow has a few niggles:

I'd love a theater mode that uses the full width of the window but still allow the title and comments below. No sidebar or scrollbar besides the video, more like MPV.

Also LibRedirect isn't perfect with embedded videos. I'd just like to have a link I can click so it opens in FreeTube.

And links from the browser are always opened in the first active window instead of opening a new window.

I am copying every single url from browser and paste it to Celluloid. That's how I watch youtube on PC.

FT-Sync (in beta) has just been released.
Also on the dev's website (in French)

I think Linux only, and between desktop clients, no mention of Android.

Also manual install, but it's not too hard.

I've been using it since YouTube stopped allowing adblockers.

I'd argue that Brave is the best way. The adblock is seamless and requires no add-ons, and you retain the full functionality of the site.

Does it get rid of the ads?

also,

a community I created here on Lemmy.World:

music, but no YouTube no Spotify no Facebook no fru fru

https://lemmy.world/c/musicnoytnosnofbnoff

No ads at all.
- sounds good then. 🙂

youtube is cancer

As someone who's survived ACTUAL cancer, and spent a year of my life dealing with this shit, and dealing with the aftermath of it now, having to get a colonoscopy this friday as part of my checkups, you can fuck right off with your casual usage of that word.
Lets slice open your chest, put a medical port in a surgury where you're still awake, and still somewhat feel whats happening because thats how they do it with todays medical insurance. Thats what we get in America. Lets have you on chemotherapy for a year so you're so out of it and so physically weak that you can't wash your own dishes. You have to ask a friend to pull the suction cup drain so the water in the sink can drain so you're able to individually lift dish.
Lets have the government tell you that cancer doesn't qualify you for disability, so you end up with $0 income for 9 months, and expected to pay rent.
Lets have bus drivers roll their eyes at you for being 40 years old, and not able to lift groceries that aren't that heavy. Made to feel like an elderly person, but people treat you like an asshole for wasting their time.
Lets have you go through that, and tell me again how youtube is cancer.
- Damn. That's brutal.
  I've used that phrase myself in the past, and never thought of this, despite having done hospice care. Thanks for the perspective. That's serious, you made me rethink things.
- "X is cancer", "X spreads like cancer", "X is cancerous" are so incredibly common phrases. Are they generally considered inappropriate?
- I'm sorry to read you were treated so poorly during your treatment. I hope you are in a better situation, if not now then in the near future.
- i will die from cancer
completely agree. not sure what the downvotes are for.

No ios not cool

More like using iOS is not cool. At least in the EU they get some more things, but I was trying the other day to show a workmate how to install an ad blocker and it turns out you can't even install firefox extensions on iOS!
- Because outside of the EU all browsers are just safari cosplaying. Inside EU at least Firefox is still just safari
- Apparently there's a browser called Orion that support both Firefox and Chrome extensions
- Skill issue
https://github.com/yattee/yattee/
On iOS I’ve been using Vinegar - Tube Cleaner by developer And a Dinosaur. It doesn’t replace YouTube as a whole - only the video player. Better interface, no ads.
ytliteplus or uyou is great for ios
- Using uYou via AltStore and it’s such a better experience. I’d rather stop using YouTube altogether than pay Alphabet to use YouTube without ads. I’m not enabling user hostile behavior to push people into Premium. Screw that.