2y ago

why I don't use the official youtube app

40 comments

YouTube is so bad. The click driven internet needs to die. There should just be a publicly funded video host with a basic web functionality and an API so third party devs can use it.
- Privacy nightmares aside.. So many social media platforms and similar sites have gone way beyond their original scope.
  Instagram is the biggest tragedy for me personally because I was a very early user of it. It used to be a fairly niche iPhone app where people shared their own amateur photography and art. It was interesting and fun. Ever since Facebook bought it, it's become a cesspit of ads, politics, thirst traps, spam, bait posts, shitty memes, narcissism, and general low quality content. It also has stupid stories and reels and has just become overcomplicated, trying to cover so many bases.
  It's depressingly hollow to look at these days.
  
  Pixelfed
- There is, nobody uses it. Peertube.
  
  Well then they should do that except good
- People won't pay though, that's exactly the problem.
  
  Yup, there have been countless attempts to paywall creator content but they always flop. The closest we have right now is offering video content through Patreon subscriptions, but creators know they can’t put their main content there because it would destroy their platform
- I never understood why „video-podcasts“ never cought on. Everybody would host their own videos or provides peer-to-peer links and it can be presented basically like a YouTube feed in compatible apps.
  As a cherry on top, a compatible app could also support YouTube and download videos from there liked piped or invidious.

I get that lots of people are here because they're against modern trends in Internet applications. But can we stop with the constant complaints of the exact same issues every single day? It's frustrating. You're preaching to the choir and saying nothing original.
- At the end of the day if the average user cared they wouldn't be able to get away with it.
  Most people just don't give a shit. They just want to watch videos without paying.
  
  Most of us are just to tired at the end of the day to do anything. Paying bills, barely affording rent or food, and being stuck in a shit job. Not to mention a commute that sucks 2 hours out of our lives everyday.
  
  And most creators want to get paid for the work they put into their videos.
- People look for echo chambers, Lemmy is no different. Like any community, it’s full of people who want to be heard but have nothing to say.
- The irony is thatthe YouTube algorithm thinks that's what they want to see based on their viewing history...
  My feed is usually pretty rad. I love that they're adding more small channels to mix, I found a great one the other day that way (Ideal Idea). The only thing I really hate and can't get rid of is Shorts
  If you don't like a suggestion, click the dots and pick Not Interested or Don't Recommend This Channel. It's easy.
  
  The YouTube algorithm is garbage. More than once it's just completely removed channels I watch pretty much daily from my suggestions. The not interested filter is woefully inadequate as they have no idea what the actual reason for disinterest was. I still get 100 flavors of lofi videos in my suggestions despite flagging every single one. YouTube's interpretation of that? Remove all other forms of music.
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  Ideal Idea
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
- This is why I feel nothing ever changes in north america, people become complacent in everything thats around them and can be improved upon.
  If only people would get angry and organize, but I get it we are all tired working 9-5 everyday with long commutes and paying to much for everything. At the end of the day we just want to sit down and switch off.
  
  In other countries, like France, a slight raising of retirement age or increase in tuition causes multitudes to rage in the streets. In the US far greater injustices are met with a shrug.
- no

Revanced Manager

revanced, newpipe and clipious
- and theres smartubenext for tv

YouTube has gone drastically downhill in the past year. It had been going downhill for a while, but it is basically an ad platform with terrible content now.
- Plenty of good content on youtube. And even in the earlier days, a lot of content was terrible. Shaky home videos of some mom's backyard? Yup.
  What grinds my gears is the ads and the shorts. Fuck them both.

I recently discovered some YouTube front-end apps that provide a better interface than the one in the native app. It was thanks to this comment made on another post about YouTube and ad-blockers:
https://lemmy.world/comment/5006617
Not sure if you have seen this or not, but if not, do try some of them out.
- i like the YouTube ui so i use revanced
- I haven't seen this in any of the lists, but would it be possible to create a YouTube premium app without all the anti-consumer design. Like a fork of the official app where I'd be able to login, but not have all the bloat and just have search, subscriptions and playlists.
  
  I'm pretty sure you can do this with revanced

grayjay is a pretty good app
- Main downside for me is that playlists fall out of sync with YouTube, so i can't really use it alongside Revanced or YouTube in the browser. But i agree, it's a good app, particularly if one can use it exclusively.

They also went back on their policy of not allowing COVID and election misinformation.
You want to support your favorite content creators? But their shit or donate to their Patreon. Almost none of them make money off YouTube's ads.

Use Piped, there are Android apps like Newpipe and Libretube that use the servers. And also Freetube for your PC.

This sort of thing is true for the official apps from a lot of companies and servies. But their respective mobile websites usually work just fine.
- Usually yes

The Vinegar extension for Safari is pretty good.

40 comments