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
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!
Was I using a dodgy version or was I missing something?
Yes. The devs never provided an APK or released it in any app store. You need to build it yourself by using the revanced manager app from revanced.app (official website).
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
NewPipe has the nicer layout for sure, but you have to use a fork for SponsorBlock, which means its behind on other fixes, most notably some audio track issues.
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.
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.
The problem is that LibreTube, NewPipe and others do not login or sync with your account. I really miss being able to save a video to my watch later playlist on my desktop, and later on watch it on my phone and it’ll be marked as watched everywhere
With LibreTube that’s only partially true. It doesn’t sync with YouTube, but LibreTube on Android will sync with your favorite Piped instance on desktop, so if you also browse YouTube on desktop using Piped, you’ll get that experience of a synced subscriptions list. You can use Google Takeout to easily migrate from the main YouTube to Piped with all your subscriptions active.
With NewPipe you’re correct - there’s no sync. You can import from Google, but there’s no mechanism to sync with a desktop version.
Would be nice if I could sync my browsing history in a way that what I watch on desktop using my Piped account gets all merged, in a secure and private way of course.
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
Installed it the other day and found that most of the crap there is pretty useless…
Installed it to force a locale on a specific app that forces my native device language on it but it didn’t work… :(
Xposed had a lot more addons. To be fair though, I’d say most of the addons I used on Xposed, 10 or so years ago, are now an integral part of android so…
I strongly caution anyone from downloading or even visiting either of those links. They are not official and set up by third-parties, who could be doing it for various malicious reasons.
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.
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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!
Yes. The devs never provided an APK or released it in any app store. You need to build it yourself by using the revanced manager app from revanced.app (official website).
yes, use revanced manager. buffering issue got fixed in 3 days after it aopeared, 6 months ago
ReVanced has never been on the playstore (you have to patch youtube yourself) and neither has vanced
Yep, that’s confirmed my suspicions then. Thank you!
Anything for iOS?
Yattee seems to be the best option, but it seems to be an app where your mileage may vary due to it being a beta.
Revanced. It’s an universal dex patcher, primarily targeting Youtube.
it can remove ads and tracking and customize ui.
NewPipe, LibreTube or just Firefox with ublock Origin
That’st favorite solution
Use the sponsorblock fork of newpipe https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe
If you are just listening to music “InnerTune” might be for you. Uses
music.youtube.comin the back, without ads and able to run in the background. Available on F-DroidI really like this fork of newpipe. It has sponsorblock and YouTube dislike built in
https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe
I use newpipe from the FOSSdroid repo
I use revanced, but it does seem like libretube is better
I use LibreTube: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.libretube/
But I heard that NewPipe is also very good: https://newpipe.net/
NewPipe has the nicer layout for sure, but you have to use a fork for SponsorBlock, which means its behind on other fixes, most notably some audio track issues.
Thanks for the links
On android you can do Youtube ReVanced.
ReVanced. Old Vanced is dead. Amd only use the ReVanced Manager from their Github.
I’ll see if I can find that; thank you my friend :)
F***ing autocorrect
To me YouTube vanced with sponsor block, still works pretty fine.
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.
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.
How does LibreTube respond to fast-paced mobile connection changes?
I’m not sure, but one workaround is to download the video ahead of time when you have a solid connection.
The problem is that LibreTube, NewPipe and others do not login or sync with your account. I really miss being able to save a video to my watch later playlist on my desktop, and later on watch it on my phone and it’ll be marked as watched everywhere
Agreed. I need the youtube recommendations
If you need account specific recommendations and subscriptions, you should give Youtube Revanced a go.
With LibreTube that’s only partially true. It doesn’t sync with YouTube, but LibreTube on Android will sync with your favorite Piped instance on desktop, so if you also browse YouTube on desktop using Piped, you’ll get that experience of a synced subscriptions list. You can use Google Takeout to easily migrate from the main YouTube to Piped with all your subscriptions active.
With NewPipe you’re correct - there’s no sync. You can import from Google, but there’s no mechanism to sync with a desktop version.
That’s perfect! This is probably the one I’ll go with. You’ve been a big help my friend :)
Why ignore ReVanced?
Privacy reasons I guess?
Would be nice if I could sync my browsing history in a way that what I watch on desktop using my Piped account gets all merged, in a secure and private way of course.
One thing I’ll mention for those like me that use the feature regularly, you can’t cast natively from LibreTube.
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
Unrelated, what do you have running on LSposed?
Installed it the other day and found that most of the crap there is pretty useless… Installed it to force a locale on a specific app that forces my native device language on it but it didn’t work… :(
Xposed had a lot more addons. To be fair though, I’d say most of the addons I used on Xposed, 10 or so years ago, are now an integral part of android so…
I strongly caution anyone from downloading or even visiting either of those links. They are not official and set up by third-parties, who could be doing it for various malicious reasons.
Revanced is here
Revanced extended is here
For both, you’ll also need Vanced MicroG installed.
XDA has a step-by-step guide.
That’s good advice, thanks for letting people know.
You don’t need microg if you’re rooted.
Don’t click anything. Those are fake links.
This is the official revanced github and the website is:
https://revanced.app/
Edit: i see my comments weren’t updated and someone was waaay quicker than me. :)
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.