Youtube let the other shoe drop in their end-stage enshittification this week. Last month, they required you to turn on Youtube History to view the feed of youtube videos recommendations. That seems reasonable, so I did it. But I delete my history every 1 week instead of every 3 months. So they don't get much from my choices. It still did a pretty good job of showing me stuff I was interested in watching.
Then on Oct 1, they threw up a "You're using an Ad Blocker" overlay on videos. I'd use my trusty Overlay Remover plugin to remove the annoying javascript graphic and watch what I wanted. I didn't have to click the X to dismiss the obnoxious page.
Last week, they started placing a timer with the X so you had to wait 5 seconds for the X to appear so you could dismiss blocking graphic.
Today, there was a new graphic. It allowed you to view three videos before you had to turn off your Ad Blocker. I viewed a video 3 times just to see what happens.
Now all I see is this.
Google has out and out made it a violation of their ToS to have an ad blocker to view Youtube. Or you can pay them $$$.
I ban such sites from my systems by replacing their DNS name in my hosts file routed to 127.0.0.1 which means I can't view the site. I have quite a few banned sites now.
PC: Install Firefox. Then install these extensions: Sponsorblock for YouTube, Enhancer for YouTube, uBlock Origins with all the filters turned on except the language filters (you can use them if you wish) and Return YouTube Dislike. Keep uBlock Filters updated by checking for filter updates once a day.
Android: There's Revanced. I use pre-built apks along with Vanced MicroG from RVX Lite in Telegram.
Android TV: Install SmartTubeNext.
Enjoy.
Another tip: For security reasons, always install the absolute minimum number of browser extensions you can get by with. And only from devs you trust.
Alternative for Android
That works as well.
Invidious has still been working for me too, though I'll be clear I'm also using firefox
Hey I had a lot of problem with invidious how can u mitigate the long loading times and what about the front page ... it changes content maybe once a day yeah I know I probably consume too much yt but it's pretty annoying to search for content manually...
Sorry for the delayed responce, but yeah I understand if it's not working for you it might not be a great option sadly.
If that's happening, I'd try a few different instances. Try inv.tux.pizza which works well for me. I do sometimes have to click the address bar and then enter though instead of just reloading, which is also strange
Thanks I will definitely give it a shot I'm tired of yt policies (eventhow thanks to various addblock its normal for now ... )
any iOS suggestions?
Use Altstore and sideload uYouPlus
This is the best an iOS user can do I think. Does Firefox exist in App Store? If yes, if it doesn't use Safari as base, it might be supporting extensions. Never had an iPhone so don't know much about it.
Slightly better, instead of Altstore get your device registered on the apple developer program (there are cheap ways of doing this) then you can sign as many sideloaded apps as you want and they stay working without having to constantly connect altserver.
It uses Safari as a base, for now. Hoping that with the EU forcing other app stores or sideloading we get full Firefox on iOS. Would be amazing.
I remember seeing something saying they were testing a full build for iOS a while back. They essentially have one feature complete with the macOS Apple Silicon version as well.
I use safari with an adblocker extension (AdGuard) on ios
youtube works just fine in a browser, the youtube app sucks anyway
Use a product not designed to remove all control from you as its number one core design principle
ok but I like the iPad. Great hardware
People always recommend this, freetube, revanced, etc. When I looked into these, each one either did not work or seemed complicated to setup so I said screw it.
I'm just curious... why not use Firefox and install ublock origin? Even if you've never used Firefox before the whole setup process would still be far easier and it works 100% of the time.