this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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38
YouTube app is the worst (feddit.org)
submitted 10 hours ago by sexy_peach@feddit.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Normally I use NewPipe on android. It's an alternative YouTube app that can play videos in the background, doesn't have ads and allows me to download videos and music.

I had the YouTube app disabled with adb on this phone for all the time I've had it. For backup there's always the browser YouTube page.

I must have done something wrong and accidentally clicked install on the YouTube app again, so it activated and was back to normal on this phone.

Holy hell is that app a terrible advertising machine. Every time I click on a YouTube video now I get sent straight to it and it always plays ads and also has text ads all over the GUI so I can't even read the channel info etc while I wait for the ads to go away.

I don't know how people deal with that it would completely make me want to stop using YouTube.

Please do yourself a favor and install NewPipe or ReVanced (I think that's the name of basically the same app but with sponsorblock additionally). Both are on f-droid.org app store as well. Less important because you can manually use NewPipe but you could also disable the YT app with adb so it disappears from your phone.

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[–] megopie@beehaw.org 1 points 29 minutes ago* (last edited 27 minutes ago)

on IOS I’ve found the mobile web page to be legitimately better than the app, I can do Picture in Picture and listen to it in the background, things the app won’t let you do without paying. For a while it also let me get rid of the shorts shelf, which the app just had no option for, they got rid of that a few months back, but I’ve found that if I mark “not interested” on any shorts it puts up it hides it again for a while.

Also if the ads are getting a bit much I can open it in fire fox focus and I’ve found it block ads completely, I’ve heard from others that Firefox focus doesn’t block YouTube ads for them, but, I’ve never seen a YouTube ad while using it.

Honestly, in general, if something has a web page, I won’t use an app at this point. I’ve had so many experiences with dedicated apps just being worse experiences.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Don't forget SmartTube for Android TV / Shield / Fire and youtube-webos for LG TVs!

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 2 points 44 minutes ago (1 children)

Youtube-webos is the single reason why I've resumed watching YT in the livingroom. I had stopped when they introduced the second pre-roll ad and a lot of things became unskippable. Now my old TV is rooted, it doesn't really phone home, it doesn't show ads and it's a breeze. Let's hope it stays that way, because Google is already trying to fight the adblockers for some time now.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 1 points 26 minutes ago

You don't even need to root it, developer mode is relatively simple to set up and that lets you install whatever. A pihole is good for stopping it phoning home though.

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

i have revanced but the one thing i hate hate HATE about youtube is the stupid take a break reminder. i go in and turn it off but a day later they're back either let us turn it off completely, google, or get rid of it.

[–] megopie@beehaw.org 1 points 28 minutes ago

Or the autoplay function, or YouTube shorts shelf, or so many other new “features” they’d really like us to turn on.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Most people here seem to be using Android, but in case there are any iOS users out there, you may be thinking to type: “cries in Apple“.

Fortunately though, there are a few browsers that can still block YT ads. I prefer to use Orion + ublock origin and Brave.

[–] supermurs@kbin.earth 1 points 58 minutes ago

Video Lite is great for iOS.

[–] SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org 1 points 2 hours ago

There is Yattee for Apple devices, but sadly for some unknown reason they haven't released an update version on the app store in over a year which means it no longer works.

[–] forrgott@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 8 hours ago

I manually disabled all link types for the YouTube app, then went to the settings for NewPipe and enabled all supported link types to open there instead. That way I can use YouTube for the occasional video that fails to open in NewPipe, but clicking on a link will open NewPipe by default. It's tedious, but so worth it.

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 8 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Which f droid repo is revanced? Can't find it.

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 11 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

They are neither included in standard F-Droid repos, nor Izzy, nor do they offer an F-Droid repo themself.

You can either use the direct download from their website https://revanced.app/download or from GitHub. https://github.com/revanced/revanced-manager

The latter can be imported in Obtainium.

[–] Scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Also you don't download the youtube app in the usual sense but rather a patcher application

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 3 points 1 hour ago

So in other words: You need to have the YouTube app installed for the ReVanced patcher application to work.

[–] scintilla@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I like tubular since it has built in sponsorblock.

also revanced isn't really the same thing it's basically normal YouTube app with adblock and a lot of other nice to have features. still can use an account to sign in

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 6 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Out of the NewPipe forks I've gone with PipePipe. I think it's faster with updates and features but I don't know if that was the reason I originally switched over

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

PipePipe has a Login option that NewPipe explicitly doesn't want to implement to ensure anonymity, and thus, allows to watch restricted content.

[–] pwalker@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

I have Pixeld Android 16 and there I can still diasable every pre-installed app directly in the app settings. Also you could just go to the "open by default" settings of the app an set it to back to "browser" this way yt videos you click will not open the app anymore but the browser.

I think when you disable yt you can even got to the NewPipe app settings and enbaled it to be opened by default for each yt link and many more are supported by the app.

Also the youtube app is very usable with premium obviously. So in case you want to try it out but want it cheaper you could try the vpn trick an buy premium from a "low cost" country. Unfortunately google is fighting is actively and for most countries you'd need a credit card from that country. However Poland still worked for me for example and it't still almost half the price therr.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Revanced is the native YouTube app with free access to the features normally in Premium like removing pre/midroll ads and picture-in-picture, in addition to extra add-ins like Sponsorblock, Dearrow, the choice to either remove Shorts entirely or automatically play them in the regular player, etc. It also works with your YouTube account, so you can read and write to your regular playlists, view your subscriptions, etc., and any changes you make will be immediately reflected on your logged-in web browser.

[–] SereneSadie@lemmy.myserv.one 3 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Except it doesn't work. Within minutes, Revanced has gone into loading hell every time I tried it, every update.

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago

ive had that happen with tiktok but not youtube. what i do is go into revanced manager and click patcher and select an app and look for youtube but don't do anything. look where it says suggested under youtube and copy the number (ie Suggested v20.13.41) then take that and search for youtube apkmirror and download not the one marked bundle. once you have it go back to revanced manager, click patcher, select an app, then click on storage and select the apk you downloaded.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 3 points 6 hours ago

I've never had that problem. Are you running it on the latest version of the YouTube client that Revanced Manager says it supports? Or trying to run it on an unsupported version of the YouTube client?

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I don't know how people deal with that it would completely make me want to stop using YouTube.

Usually people who don't want to deal with ads and don't want to deal with hassle of vanced being shut off again will just subscribe to it, but since that word is a taboo here you're likely just not get that answer here.

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Is it a taboo?

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 1 points 2 hours ago

At least it's not seen as a smart move to pay for services twice, particularly not if one payment is your private data and especially not if that data is going to a big corporation like Google.