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Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube (www.popsci.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M] to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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I'm not sure it's the "best" way, but it's a solid alternative, and receives rapid updates when YouTube moves to break things.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/15571129

I'm using this all the time myself. There is no login to YouTube required and it supports adding subscriptions and doing everything important you can do on YouTube.

And the best part is no ads whatsoever.

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[–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Out of curiosity, what's is better about it than YouTube?

Vanilla YouTube is obvious, but I've got ublock origin , sponsor block and that thing that renames stuff to non click bait.

It all just works and I don't get adds and I keep all my sub's and still get useful suggestions.

On android i just use revanced.

So, what's the pull of downloading a 3rd party for Linux / PC?

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  • [–] [S] 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    For me it's not just about ads, it's also about surveillance. With FreeTube you can have subscriptions without needing a linked YouTube account, and all the subscription/watch history data is stored locally. So, it's a good opt-out of Google/YouTube surveillance. And you can import/export subscriptions if you need to transfer to another device. I happen to use FreeTube for this because it is frequently updated and I like the setup, but other options exist - I'm not really promoting this option over other options, just raising some awareness about it.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I've tried a few different front ends for fun in the past and they're fun to tinker with, I'll admit. I don't think I used freetube.

    Also it was some months ago, but the biggest issue I found was that I couldn't sync watch lists. I could add subs and things but if I watched something on my phone, whatever front-end on my computer would tell me I still hadn't watched that video and recommend it.

    Is there a way around this? Because, that's a huge deal breaker for me. As an end goal, I want less Google in my life, but there are certain inconveniences I am unwilling to tolerate (however seemingly small lol).

    Anyway, I may start tinkering again soon. Thanks for the reply!

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I don't think there's currently a way to automatically sync watch history across devices, but I'd love to be wrong about that tbh, because it would be handy.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Syncthing is your friend. Freetube stores playlists, history, settings and subscriptions as .db-files which you can sync between devices. Android version also allows access to these files if enabled in settings.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    that thing that renames stuff to non clickbait

    Sounds like something I'd use, what is it called?

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Sorry, I'd have said the name initially, I've just got one of those brains that doesn't always cooperate when it's needed.

    Anyway, it's called "Dearrow" and it's pretty cool. Check it out!

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