- cross-posted to:
- piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- cross-posted to:
- piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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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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.
Thanks for the reply! Just went through the whole list and none of the instances worked for me. I always get: “[invidious ](SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input)”. Googling the error led me to https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/issues/5506 ← There someone posted an unlisted API that works. It seems non official since it is not listed on https://api.invidious.io/ … is that safe to use? Thanks in advance
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.
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.
So, what do you not like about the Freetube’s UI and UX?
Firefox + UBlock + Youtube is the way to go.
Unless you don’t like Google tracking everything you watch on youtube, that is.
I used to think it is redundant too, but now see it as a quality-of-life difference. Because I can track my subscriptions and watch history, as well as have playlists. That is a massive improvement over folders of bookmarks.
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
+1
Can it be used on a “normal” android phone or just android tv?
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.
Keep it quiet with the Freetube articles, I don’t want it gone lol.
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.
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 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.
I prefer NewPipe/Tubular so much that I don’t even use my desktop for YouTube anymore.
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…
Can I see dislikes tho?
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.
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
Skill issue
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.
For some reason like recommendation algorithm, I still use youtube premium.
How is that different from the free version in a browser with Ublock Origin?
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%.
If I want to support the creator, I would rather donate directly or subscribe to the person’s Patreon. YT Premium just gives no extra features for Youtube itself so could not justify paying.
For some reason I doubt that’s a common practice with people hellbent on not seeing ads and not paying for the service.
Color me surprised if I’m wrong about that.
I use youtube music everyday as well as downloading videos on my phone to play without wifi. So maybe I do use some premium features, which may make me biased.
I don’t subscribe to anyone, but have donated to the authors I like, just as I did to the FOSS projects I use. One blogger even has a site where you can tie your donation to a specific video of his.
And for Youtube Music - RiMusic does just what you described but does not require a Google account or a recurring payment.
Why does it want me to scan my ID? Wtf?
