Just like the title says; I'm interested in being able to sleep to YouTube without ads, but I don't fuck with their business practices and they don't deserve my money. Unfortunately, I'm also a very inexperienced pirate and I'm unsure where to look.
Edit: for clarity I'm using a OnePlus 7 Pro with earbuds
Ignore ReVanced, go for LibreTube. It uses Piped in the backend to access YouTube, and it's got a really nice user interface on Android.
It also automatically blocks ads, skips sponsored segments, supports downloads, PiP, background playing, subscriptions, comments, live videos.
It doesn't rely on shady alternative G services running in the background, doesn't need you to modify any official APKs, it's open source, and you can customize elements you want or do not want to see from YouTube. Give it a go.
EDIT: And here are some bonuses it's got over alternatives: customizable sleep timers, channel groups, subscriptions synced automatically with your desktop browser (via Piped), the ability to proxy and reroute your traffic to YouTube, full Shorts support, live comments for broadcasts.
That is the only official website. Do not install prebuilt apks anywhere else. Use the manager to build them yourself. Ask for help in their subreddit.
If you're willing to sacrifice the perks of using YT with a Google account (commenting, uploading videos, history and playlists saved in cloud, paid content, mostly anything else that might require an account), then I'd recommend NewPipe (especially the fork that incorporates SponsorBlock).
Despite the sacrifices, you don't actually need Play Services in order to use the app, and the playlists/history stuff is made up by storing that locally in your device. It's FOSS under GPL, too!
It also lets you watch other stuff that isn't on YT (Soundcloud, CCC, Bandcamp, PeerTube and most likely others that I forgot), and even lets you download the stuff on them!
I use Piped (https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped) for youtube both on desktop and mobile through the browser, though there is also the app LibreTube which uses Piped as backend.
Just use Revanced or Revanced Extanded. If you rooted like me (OnePlus 7 Pro + Crdroid 9.5 + Magisk & LSPosed) just use the magisk module, it work great but on my brother phone (not rooted) he use it with the MicroG without problem but you need to disable the official youtube app if you don't want dupe app
If you are just listening to music "InnerTune" might be for you. Uses music.youtube.com in the back, without ads and able to run in the background. Available on F-Droid
I use songtube
It is open source, you can download the videos or just the music, listen with the screen off, it is also a music player and it is more eye candy than newpipe.
Lazy piracy with YouTube for me, VPN signup and burner account. Am I happy with their business practices? Nope, but they play too much cat-mouse with the blockers that I’d rather they take my ~$1.17/m and left me alone.
For everyone suggesting Revanced, I used it for a while and found it to be incredibly slow and breaking up videos to buffer all the time. Was I using a dodgy version or was I missing something? I had it from the app store if I remember right. (Might be thinking of Vanced??)
Edit: Sorry folks, I wasn't bashing revanced, I was just pretty sure I had a fake app and wanted to make sure. Thanks for the replies putting me on the right track!
I don't know man, I watch a ton of YouTube everyday and YouTube also comes with YouTube music. I just prepaid for two years of their premium service and I might do another two in the event they raise their price, I want my access locked in. Besides OdyseeTV and Peertube are WIP. It was like $100 a year flat or something.
PIA and NordVPN are probably fine. If your pockets aren't super flushed those are good services.
If any of you guys are having a hard time with making ReVanced work, RVX Lite on Telegram (t.me/rvx_lite) provides safe, ready-made apks that you can just install and use with Vanced MicroG.