this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023

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Top Extensions to Make YouTube Bearable (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

368 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[–] [email protected] 139 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

just one needed: LibRedirect set to automatically redirect the URLs to Piped or Invidious. no.ads, no shorts, no tracking, and Piped comes with SponsorBlock built in.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/libredirect/

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

I found this comment more useful than the OP. With Google getting ready to block ad blockers, I'm hoping this is a way to continue watching YT content.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

looks like i may be heading back over to Firefox.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Reminder to all, Firefox on Android can use UBlock Origin. It's an easy setup, no more ads.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Use youtube revanced with microg on non rooted phones, it comes with all the premium and unique features....

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (11 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For YouTube Shorts, you can copy this filter into the uBlock My Filters.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's nice, although somewhat different than what OP linked. I think the filter you linked will completely remove shorts, where the extension OP linked (Youtube Shorts Block) will instead convert shorts into a normal video, despite the misleading name. Although I think the extension has an option to completely block shorts too

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Two things I also like to do is changing my Youtube bookmark to https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions and adding the following two filters to uBlock:

www.youtube.com##.ytp-endscreen-content
www.youtube.com###related

This basically makes it so that I only see videos from channels I'm actually subscribed to, without having any content pushed on me from the algorithm.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/feed/subscriptions

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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'.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Youtube search fix: This is not a extension but if you save this as a bookmark javascript:location.href=location.href+'&sp=CAASAhAB'; in your browser it can be used to remove youtubes recommended / "people also watched" videos from a search.

To use it, search for something on youtube and then click the bookmark you have made and it will then reload the search page and only show listings for what you searched for and remove youtubes recommended / “people also watched" videos from the search.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

javascript:location.href=location.href+‘&sp=CAASAhAB’;

In firefox, you can also add a keyword to this shortcut (e.g.: yt):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&sp=CAASAhAB

Then you can use it from the search bar like yt testing and it will redirect you to this URL (replacing %s with testing):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=testing&sp=CAASAhAB

EDIT: and a fancier option is to use Redirector, Request Control (or similar) to create a redirection from YT searches without the CAASAhAB query param to the one with it.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (7 children)

All I'm wishing for on Android is for NewPipe or LibreTube to let me login to get my suggested front page. On desktop, Sponserblock is awesome, and I've been liking DeArrow.

uBlock Origin is simply a requirement on every single browser and should always be installed. I'd recommend going into the settings and enabling all the extra filters as well.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Use revanced on Android

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (15 children)

Pay for youtube premium

^ducks^

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (7 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

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...

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (8 children)

It's bearable on smartube next if you have an android TV, firestick or similar

My biggest problem with YouTube is they keep giving me videos I've already watched and it seems they wipe them from the watch list very quickly to try and trick you into clicking it again.

I also hate the fact that if I say I'm not interested In something they take no notice and send it to my recommendations again regardless.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I suspect YouTube's blacklist (do not recommend this channel / video) is length-limited. I recently noticed some of the oldest content I banned coming back in recommendations.

Feels like as I add more bans, the oldest ones get released. Really frustrating.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Really need a RES type addon for YouTube to keep a list of channels you want blocked. Really hurts searches too when it's always the same popular channels populating the results because of popularity.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Probably not the crowd for this but I just use YouTube premium at this point. I used ublock previously to manage some of this but the kicker was ensuring I could watch YT seamlessly on all devices (TV - fire stick, ipad, ios). I know I can setup a pi hole but have been moving last couple years. Perhaps soon once I settle.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Of all the streaming services we subscribe to, our family uses YT Premium the most by a large margin. In terms of hours watched/$ it's easily the best value. And you get YT Music.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

For people on Apple devices and Safari, check these out: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app-bundle/fizzy-water-bundle/id1601247237

Vinegar is for YT and Baking Soda for the rest of the web. Little annoying the devs split them up but they are both great as they give you a basic video. No ads, overlays, nothing. It may seem like a small thing but man does it have a huge impact.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

lemmings

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

where mr beast addon???

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (5 children)

NewPipe is more than enough.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Please keep in mind that every extension you install is an attack vector for hackers. Just because an extension does something cool doesn't mean you should install it.

Please stick with the most used extensions, the ones that Mozilla recommends. This is for your safety.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

df tube (distraction-free youtube): toggleable options that allow hiding the recommendation feed and featured videos on the homepage, so as to reduce distractions.

To those who allow their free time to be consumed by youtube because they consider it to be a good investment of their time since they're learning new things, please try this. You might realize that Youtube really just is a poisonous social media amongst all the others and that you really don't need the suggestions.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

FreeTube has Sponsorblock built in as a default option
NewPipe on Android (Fdroid store) or NewPipe X SponsorBlock via IzzyOnDroid repo

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Truffle improves the livestream watching experience on YouTube significantly, adding a Twitch-style theatre mode (with chat on the side), BetterTTV emotes, and more.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What about for twitch? cause its actually worst that cable tv was sometimes

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is a long list of things to make the site usable. I wonder if we as the fediverse community can leverage Peertube and eliminate the need for all these blockers.