Hello fellow, lemmings, lemmur !
If you are like me, you probably spend a lot of time on YouTube, more than you want to admit.
I remember the days when videos had stars instead of thumbs up or down, and when YouTube had, let’s say, more mature content on it.
Now the site has a lot of functionalitys that are great for Google, but that I don’t need nor want.
So, to improve the enjoyment of the platform, I present to you the ultimate extension survival kit for YouTube:
- uBlock Origin: (or your favorite ad-blocker) This is an absolute must-have. It’s a good ad-blocker that not only blocks YouTube ads but also works across all websites. It’s lightweight, efficient, and open-source. Say goodbye to ads.
- SponsorBlock: Skip over the sponsored segments of videos. It’s a community-driven project, with users submitting the timestamps of sponsored content. You can even customize it to skip over different types of segments like intros, outros, and more.
- Return YouTube Dislike: Since YouTube removed the dislike count, it’s been harder to gauge the quality of videos. This extension brings back the dislike count.
- DeArrow: Extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails. It removes click-bait titles and thumbnails providing a cleaner Youtube.
- YouTube Shorts Block: If you’re not a fan of shorts, this extension is for you. It plays the Youtube shorts video as if it were a normal video and hides the “shorts” tab from the left menu. Firefox Link Chrome Link
- Enhancer for YouTube: Allows you to add theming options, auto-HD, keyboard shortcuts and more.
These are the extensions I use. Don’t hesitate to suggest more. I will edit the post accordingly.
It’s not lost on me that these extensions remove many things that were not initially a problem on YouTube but that either arose because of the monetary incentive of Google handling the website, Youtubers trying to make money, or as countermeasures to problems that were taken care of by a previous extension. This kind of feels like an arms race…
Edit 1: Changed the YouTube Shorts Block description and added Enhancer for YouTube
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I really like Distraction Free Youtube You can remove the trending tab, shorts, recommendations, comments aka all of the time wasting fluff which really helped me cut back my YouTube usage
I came across Unhook, which lets you remove parts of YouTube that are designed to keep you there.
Changed the YT home page to subscriptions instead of ‘the algorithm’.
Tamper monkey with user script to stream YouTube videos as audio…
Thanks for the tip! Using dearrow has been great so far. I wish I could use it on my iPad too, but I guess now there’s another reason to use my laptop more.
For older/lower end computers, enhanced-h264ify is a godsend. It blocks youtube from playing VP9 codec which can cause heavy cpu usage on older hardware. It can also block 60fps video as well.
Restore YouTube Username from Handle to Custom
This script restores REAL NAMES in comments instead of
@user-xxxxxx, I am so sick of that shit, I hope revanced will have this function soon. (Edit: I guess that will never happen)In addition to some of the ones listed in OP, I use
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YouTube Auto Like - automatically likes videos you open them (optionally only when you’re subscribed to the channel). If you’re on a Chromium browser, Google removed this extension from their web store so you can’t install it from there anymore. But you can install it manually if you want by downloading it from the Github repo here.
I also use the following userscripts: -
Return Youtube Dislike - Does the same thing as the Return Youtube Dislike extension in the OP
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Youtube Shorts Redirect - redirects Youtube Shorts to a full watch page, so you can watch them like a regular video.
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Resize YT To Window Size - resizes the video player so that it fills in the entire dimensions of the browser window and moves video players to the top of the page so you can scroll down to see comments, recommend videos, etc.
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YouTube CPU Tamer by AnimationFrame - reduces Youtube’s CPU usage during video playback. I don’t really understand the technical aspects but it’s all explained in the description of the userscript. This script IS NOT compatible with SponsorBlock!
Stuff I’m looking for (if anyone has any recommendations): -
Remove duplicate videos from a playlist
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display playlists in a grid layout instead of a list layout
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block youtube channels i don’t like
edit: fixed a formatting mistake
Why the hell would anyway want to poison their liked views with an extention that likes every video they watch?
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I do this on my work and home account.
I seldom watch ‘random’ videos, mostly stick to a large curated list of channels I’ve grown to like over the years and I got sick of always having to remember to like or even go back to like videos (as doing my small part of channel interaction is the least I could do for them).
I enjoy all the videos of said channels (otherwise I wouldn’t be watching them…).
The auto like is set to happen after 30% of the video and is very easy to hit the 0 key or - key to unlike or dislike on the small amount of videos I watch that don’t deserve a like.
Pretty simple. A solution that works for many might not work for you and that’s just dandy.
The 30% watch and like option is a neet feature. Seems very customisable.
You might be interested in pockettube. Not quite what you asked for but it does allow you to make groups of subscriptions and display those in a grid layout.
pockettube looks great, thanks for the recommendation!
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Reminder to all, Firefox on Android can use UBlock Origin. It’s an easy setup, no more ads.
Brave browser on android has YouTube ad blocking by default.
For non Firefox users, use kiwi browsers for chrome extensions or revanced
Corollary, you can install Firefox Nightly and setup an addon collection on the FF website and use pretty much all desktop addons on your mobile Firefox browser.
And, you can add sponsorblock using beta, nightly or fennec f-droid and custom list of addon.
If you are already an android user. It’s definitely worth putting I some time to check out ReVanced on github.
They are the spiritual successor to Vanced and you use the ReVanced manager to patch your own youtube APK (and many more apks.)
For non Firefox users, use kiwi browsers for chrome extensions or revanced
I’ll add that NewPipe is a great app, has a fork to support sponsorblock and can mix your YouTube subscription with other sources (eg. PeerTube), which could allow for a smooth transition.
You have to be willing to loose your personalized suggestions page, but when it comes to me it helped a lot to get less addicted.
Losing personalized suggestions was a plus for me, since youtube is so thrown off by one video and even when it recommends channels that fit into the genre you like it doesn’t seem to be able to understand why it is that you like certain channels.
For instance, video games. It should know not to recommend channels that don’t have really loud youtubers who are screaming at me to smash the like button and have the most obnoxious thumbnails. But, it just sees that I like games. And then it is horrible for spoilers where I might watch a video for a game review I’m interested in then next it does is start filling my feed with spoiler content from that video.
I can do without it.
Yeah it’s the same for me. When I watch Youtube on my computer I often feel like I wasted a lot of time. On my phone I can only pick high quality content from the curated list of creators that I’ve maintained over the years, and it is a much better experience.
Here’s a filter list for UBlock Origin that blocks out all YouTube Shorts.
- Pay for youtube premium
ducks
That’s what I do.
Everyone wants stuff for free and I get that. And I also get the “fuck big corporations” stance kinda…
But these services cost money. So we either pay for it directly (and yes they need to make a profit also - this is capitalism) or we have to watch ads. It’s not really a complicated concept. I hate watching ads and have $11 per month to spare so I pay.
If there a possibility that if I paid for the service and they stop getting my data and reselling and they start to respect my privacy, fine I’ll pay for it, but that not what’s happens.
I also pay for premium, so I don’t have to worry about ads. But that only covers the first extension on this list. The others are all useful and still not available with premium.
Yeah, I also pay for YouTube Premium (have since it was YouTube Red), and get a ton of value out of it, but I’m still bombarded by all those absurd “Shorts” clogging up my subscriptions feed. I’ll have to try the linked extension - I’ve been meaning to see what’s available…
Not paying 12/month just to block ads. I don’t care about the other stuff it has.
Technically I am paying less than $12 / month for youtube premium because I have Pixel Pass. My total monthly google bill is much higher. Worth every cent. :)
This is the problem. You have a monthly bill to google.
This is why we cant have good things. Because too many people are cant just say no i wont pay for something that didnt used to be and doesnt need to.
I paid for youtube premium which not only gets rid of ads, but gives you access to the youtube music app. I got rid of Spotify because of that and end up paying less money for more functionality.
Nah, it’s worth it. Services like that cost money for a reason. I’m fine paying for a platform like YouTube. I’m just bothered by how they’ve changed monetization that negativity impacts the people making the content.
VPN to Turkey, get YouTube Premium for like $2 a month.
Honest truth, you go around actually paying a network for their services and everyone loses their minds. There’s a Nolan Batman GIF somewhere here…
I had YT premium for a while, and then I just wanted to download some videos (you know, like they advertise you can) and they just didnt allow it. Had to either watch it in the YT app or on youtube.com on my PC. That’s not downloading - thats just streaming with less computation for youtube, which helps youtube but not me. What a great ‘premium benefit’!
Cancelled my premium right then and there, if they cant provide a feature as simple as just being able to download videos to mp4 or something, thats just misleading. Literally takes seconds to find a third party site or app (NewPipe) that does it.
I would if it was another company than Google but I’m not going to support big tech companies with my money.
Google is tracking people all over the internet, and is one of the richest companies in the world. Now they want to get even more money? Right.
I’m paying for email and search but they are not from big tech.
I’m impressed! Suggesting paying for YouTube premium on Reddit is a one-way ticket to downvotesville.
I pay for it too, and it’s completely worth it considering how much time I spend there every day (including music)…
Not to mention the other day I had to use normal YouTube on someone else’s computer and the ads are unbearable.
.
People spend hundreds of hours watching youtube or playing a video game and then complain they had to pay for it. The entitlement is disgusting.
I pay, i get the family pass and have 4 other people added. It also works for watching youtube on smart devices that don’t always have blocking options - pihole setups sometimes block legit google services that keep smarthome operations from happening.
I’m a revanced user. I’m just curious and had to ask an actual premium user. The youtube app ads are gone and premium features are available.
But how is the experience when dealing with vloggers who keep plugging their sponsors in their video? and the constant like and subscribe adlib reminders of other vloggers?
cause for me, that’s one thing that revanced has solved over the premium option of youtube.
Edit: to say it before someone asks. I do pay for other premium streaming platforms, but I am selective, because, you know, my resources aren’t infinite.
YouTube premium doesn’t change anything about the videos themselves, so you still get the sponsor and like/subscribe plugs.
I understand there are extensions that remove that stuff but I’ve never tried them as I watch YouTube on many different devices and can’t be bothered to tweak each and every one. Also those don’t bother me that much and are easy enough to skip.
Thank you for taking the time to reply. It seems that I will stay with revanced for now. Though we’ll see what youtube offers in the future.
As another Premium subscriber, at this point I feel a sense of incompleteness if I don’t hear about the video’s sponsor or like-comment-subscribe.
I’m also selective of what I pay for. YouTube Premium won out against some others. Having YT Music along with it is also nice.
If you watch a lot of YouTube and can afford it, it’s totally worth it. 👌
Use youtube revanced with microg on non rooted phones, it comes with all the premium and unique features…
Similarly if you’re on iPhone look up sideloadly and install uYouPlus
I’m in the Newpipe bandwagon. NewPipe has been the best way for accessing YouTube for a long time on Android. It’s available in f-droid. Another plus on my book. I’m kinda not so much into installing a random apk for revanced.
I’ll chime in with my vote for NewPipe as well. It’s served me very well, and does so much.
Revanced as better features and let’s you sign in.
I’m sure it does. I don’t really need sign in though. YouTube is the last place where I want to have comment interaction. And Newpipe do have local playlist and bookmark options which I need.
Newpipe, you mean that app that displays an annoying “GURU MEDIDATION” error for 30% of videos? Try LibreTube, it actually works.
Well I experienced it from time to time when YouTube changes some things. Actually haven’t faced it in a long time.
i’ve never had an issue with newpipe that wasn’t fixed by updating to the latest version
I had it installed for years, updated regularly, and ran into those errors too often to recommend it.
It’s much more stable that it was in the past. I’d run it on the desktop if I could.
NewPipe is great, it gets around the main issue with Piped/Invidious instances (that being rate limiting by Google). I’ve been using it for years and it’s been great all this time.
With revanced you just get the APK from GitHub and patch the appropriate version of the official YouTube APK.
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This is the same on vanced
And sponsorblock built in, as well
Alternatively, the web app from piped.video is pretty great too. Works nicely on my phone
No tracking, no ads, no bullshit
I used vanced and was very satisfied. Now revanced draws so much power I constantly had to recharge my phone, even when not using YouTube. Hat to uninstall it for this reason.
Did you download a ready apk? If yes, it was malware. Follow the recommended procedure with the manager and patching the original YouTube apk yourself
Do you have a guide or tutorial for this?
adb to remove google services, fdroid for a firefox browser, revanced manager on github to compile revanced, and once that’s done all that’s left is to install it. Maybe also export it so that you don’t have to rebuild that version again.
https://lemmy.world/c/revanced the master post has a guide
If you’re on Android, Newpipe, from Newpipe.net, is great.
I found out about it when Google delisted it.
Is there something which alters the algorithm to have less company videos?
i never get corpo videos? algorithm is just confusing
Great post OP!
Sadly ad blockers will soon stop working on YouTube…. https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/29/23778879/youtube-videos-disabling-ad-blockers-detection
Even Twitch agressive ad-blocker blocking methods can be bypass fairly easily (it’s just not as easy as downloading an adblocker). I have hope for the future of YouTube’s adblocker !
When there is a will there’s a way. They underestimate what people on the interwebs are willing to do to watch bad videos without being bothered by even abysmally crappier ads 🤡
Perhaps it bears mentioning that DeArrow is developed by the same person as SponsorBlock. That gave me a lot of faith in it right off the bat.
