this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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I'm using this all the time myself. There is no login to YouTube required and it supports adding subscriptions and doing everything important you can do on YouTube.

And the best part is no ads whatsoever.

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[–] [email protected] 113 points 2 months ago (6 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 months ago (1 children)

apparently freetube automatically uses a new invidious instance every time it starts up.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Invidious is awesome, if possible, self hosting one in docker is great and keeps it up to date

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 2 months ago (10 children)

SmartTube beta on Android TV is fanfuckingtastic.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

Yes thats what i mean. Even if it didnt then still the app is SUPERIOR IN EVERY WAY than vanilla youtube. But it does block everything. Its a godsend.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 2 months ago (19 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Don't forget about Enhancer for YouTube, SponsorBlock, and DeArrow! They're all a must-have for desktop YT.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago

Created by deletor

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (4 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago (5 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I wish it didn't use Electron.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] AnActOfCreation 7 points 2 months ago

The trifecta!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (6 children)

How is that different from the free version in a browser with Ublock Origin?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

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...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

I downloaded Newpipe from the Fdroid app store and it works very similar go freetube

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

you might like Piped or Invidious with Libredirect addon.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

YouTube recently rolled out changes that break these third party apps causing a 503 error. Other apps have patched this issue.

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