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Top Extensions to Make YouTube Bearable

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:

  1. https://ublockorigin.com/: (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.
  2. https://sponsor.ajay.app/: 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.
  3. https://www.returnyoutubedislike.com/: Since YouTube removed the dislike count, it’s been harder to gauge the quality of videos. This extension brings back the dislike count.
  4. https://dearrow.ajay.app/: Extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails. It removes click-bait titles and thumbnails providing a cleaner Youtube.
  5. https://github.com/doma-itachi/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
  6. https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/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

LightDelaBlue ,
@LightDelaBlue@lemmy.world avatar

where mr beast addon???

xavier666 ,

😮

WarmSoda ,

What do you watch that makes his stuff come up? I’ve never seen any of his videos suggested to me in my life.

LightDelaBlue ,
@LightDelaBlue@lemmy.world avatar

its a joke addons taht put mrbeast in alls tubmnails nothing serious XD just a funny silly joke

WarmSoda ,

Silly jokes, huh?
Hmm…
Ok carry on then. Move it along folks.

Sivaru ,

NewPipe is more than enough.

pineapplelover ,

Also a shoutout to Libretube. Much better UI and updates quickly. With the downside that it’s less reliable

Araozu ,

Libretube with my own Piped instance, almost flamless. One line setup with docker, Runs perfectly on a 5$ VPS. I haven’t entered youtube in months, there is no reason other that to import suscriptions, channels, etc.

Only problem is for some reason some not-so-popular videos are slow to load on 720p, but load fine in 480p or 1080p. Really weird.

zxo ,

NewPipe is currently doing a big rewrite of the app, so that’s probably why development seems stagnant.

Also I have heard of Clipious being good too

crystal ,

The one thing that stops me from using NewPipe is not seeing answers to comments.

It’s such an important feature but it’s simply missing.

Until that’s added I don’t think NewPipe will be an option for me.

Araozu ,

You can try LibreTube, it has almost all the features of youtube. Only downside is some videos are slow to load, but if you can host your own Piped instance that’s solved. It has sponsorblock built in, regular updates, and a better ui imo

pazukaza ,

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.

MedicPigBabySaver ,

lemmings

HelloHotel ,
@HelloHotel@lemmy.world avatar

Tunnel Snakes

Merulox ,
@Merulox@lemmy.world avatar

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.

theFibonacciEffect ,

That sounds great, I’m going to try it

burningquestion ,

been wanting something like this for years, thanks

HelloHotel ,
@HelloHotel@lemmy.world avatar

Its funny how the only reason for me to be on the video player screen is to distractedly click on all the destracting links. (I run yt-dlp on a bulk of yt urls)

sic_semper_tyrannis ,
Ab_intra ,
@Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

Or you could just subscribe to YouTube Premium (same price as Spotify) and get YouTube Music with it… Also it seems like Google is planning on having a three strike policy on ad blocking.

Ashiette ,

lol

yoshisaur ,

Firefox + Ublockorigin works against the 3 strike policy. Premium is not flexible for anyone. No one uses Youtube music or anything else that isn’t no ads or downloads. They’re only included to increase the price, and there’s no other options.

Ab_intra , (edited )
@Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

. No one uses Youtube music or anything else that isn’t no ads or downloads.

Uhm, YouTube Music is with no ads and you can download? Dunno what your point is here really.

Premium is not flexible for anyone.

Uhm, it’s flexible for anyone that uses Spotify, it’s the same price in one, you get YouTube without ads and YouTube Music in the same price.

Firefox + Ublockorigin works against the 3 strike policy.

I’ve not tested this, I’m not sure if this is even implemented for most users as it’s still in beta testing after what I’ve heard. So this might not be the case.

NightOwl ,

Youtube without ads isn’t a selling point.

Now if had stuff like returning downvote visibility, ability to group channels, and native sponsorblock and features like skip to highlight that would be a start.

Ab_intra ,
@Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

It’s not really the selling point for me either, It was a bonus because I got YouTube Music in the mix. Free ads was a bonus at that point.

iAmTheTot ,
@iAmTheTot@kbin.social avatar

I use YT Music. And Premium was always included in the cost even way back in the Google Play Music days. Not sure what you're on about.

yoshisaur ,

I’m glad that premium works for you, but most of the included benefits in premium, most people don’t end up using.

Ab_intra ,
@Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

Like the no ads you’re talking about? And how do you know what people end up using?

Just because there is people here that don’t like the idea here of paying for premium don’t mean there is not people who use it…

oct_opus OP ,

I feel like there was an unwritten agreement between extension developers and Google/Youtube. Youtube allowed ad-blocking for those who wanted it, and in exchange, ad-blockers didn’t hide that users were blocking ads. By doing this, Youtube would break this agreement. I think there will always be a way around it, but currently, as it’s still working, no alternative that I know of has been developed.

Ab_intra ,
@Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

Don’t think that’s really the case tbh. YouTube has allowed this for some time, yes, but they have been blocking this also from time to time. There was a reason why i started to use Unblock Origin in the first place because Adblock plus i think it was stopped working.

But a year or two ago I tried YouTube Premium for free for a month and ended up canceling Spotify and only using this now. The fact of the matter is that Google is losing loads of cash because people are blocking the ads.

I’m not pointing fingers to anyone here, I myself have used ad blocking for years, but when the price was right I jumped ship from Spotify and became a premium subscriber at YouTube.

ZodiacSF1969 ,

I’m tempted, but I’ve been using Spotify so long it’s hard to make a change. I should look into it again though.

It sucks you got downvoted so much. It’s a legitimate point, and it’s unsustainable for YouTube to keep hosting so much content if people aren’t subscribing and aren’t viewing ads.

Ab_intra , (edited )
@Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks for a constructive comment! I would say go for it. You can import playlists. I don’t think there is a native way but it might be by now.

I actually think the mixes that Youtube Music makes for you are much better than what Spotify gives you. But then again Google has loads of more data points on us.

You can get a free month I think that’s how I got into it.

ZodiacSF1969 ,

Cheers, I might give it a go next time they offer me the free trial. I’m definitely not adverse to paying for ad-free access 😊

Ab_intra ,
@Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

It’s worth it IMO. You get it for the same price that you pay for Spotify and get ad free Youtube + music. IMO that’s bigger value.

Hope you enjoy it if you end up trying it out.

Haui ,
@Haui@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Adblock plus still works and very well too. Also, widening the ad situation was what got me to use it. I was ok watching one or two ads every now and then but I‘m not gonna be looking at 20 minute unskippable ads (thats when I said its enough). As some posts say, the ad driven internet is dying and rightfully so. Looking into peertube atm and liking what I see. All the streaming services need to get their stuff together and make a unified model: you wanna watch disney, disney gets a portion of your fee, walking dead? Netflix of whoever and so on. At least thats how I think it would be fair. Like a cable subscription and not half of your rent just to watch all the stuff.

Ab_intra ,
@Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

20 minutes!?! Is that a thing? That is nuts!

Haui ,
@Haui@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

That is absolutely a real thing. Sometimes, if you watch a video of a couple hours it puts huge prerolls in front and its one thing if they are skippable (because who wants 20 mins of ads anyway?) but when they became unskippable is when I pulled the trigger.

Ab_intra ,
@Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

That’s insane. 🤬

CaptObvious ,

Found the Google shill.

yuunikki ,

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    Ab_intra ,
    @Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

    Thanks for the personal attack.

    Also as I’ve stated above this is something that Google is working to block. Soon you will have to watch ad or not be able to use YouTube at all.

    iAmTheTot ,
    @iAmTheTot@kbin.social avatar

    Because things can't always be free. It'd be nice if we lived in a utopic society where data storage and energy were unlimited, but we don't. YT Premium has been the best value of a sub I've ever spent money on.

    yuunikki ,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    skylestia ,
    @skylestia@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    edit: sorry replied to the wrong person

    skylestia ,
    @skylestia@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    is it possible for multiple people to use one youtube premium subscription other than the family plan? we checked the family plan but there’s no way we can justify paying for it, far too expensive for us considering all our other expenses

    Ab_intra ,
    @Ab_intra@lemmy.world avatar

    I’m not sure tbh. One thing you could do is have one use it online while the other person using it offline.

    But i get that it might be to expensive for a family plan.

    10EXP ,
    @10EXP@sh.itjust.works avatar

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

    o_d ,
    @o_d@lemmy.ml avatar

    I almost installed, but the permissions it asks for feels a bit extreme. I’ll probably stick to creating my own theatre mode by using the enhancer full window mode with the pop-out chat to the side.

    Historical_General ,
    @Historical_General@lemmy.world avatar

    Youtube shorts block is a godsend by the sounds of it, installing now.

    winkerjadams ,

    You can also easily block them with ublock origin’s block element feature :)

    Historical_General ,
    @Historical_General@lemmy.world avatar

    I like the part where it’ll play as a normal video as well.

    JohnBoBon ,

    Yesssss. Youtube shorts are fine except that it won’t let you navigate them like a normal video. I don’t understand why they don’t wanna have consistant layout between shorts and videos. It’s like a separate site

    whats_all_this_then ,

    My guess: keeping it similar to TikTok, since that’s what shorts trt to compete with.

    Nioxic ,

    alternatively:

    “Blocktube” allows you to just straight up block all shorts

    and use slightly more advanced code to block any videos with various parameters (specific words in their title, length, from a certain channel etc)

    a lot of youtubers i follow constantly have “podcast” episodes and i dont give a fuck about them, but with blocktube… its like they dont exist

    Juggernaut ,

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

    Lautrebeacon ,

    I’m using an extension called “Alternate Player for Twitch.tv”, works pretty well to hide ads but sometimes you only get black screens instead of ads (addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/twitch_5/)

    Teritz ,

    I never Heard of DeArrow thats nice thanks

    FrankFrankson ,

    DeArrow needs lots of permissions to function.

    HelloHotel ,
    @HelloHotel@lemmy.world avatar

    Thankfully, its verry open about the API calls to its database servers

    Also, there are some permissions that are less powerful (on purpose) than others due to a more narrow scope. So you need more.

    • edit youtube.com
    • edit youtu.be
    • edit yt music’s page

    Versus

    • edit every page
    OutrageousUmpire ,

    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.

    STUPIDVIPGUY ,

    The problem with that is we need funding in order to attract quality content creators. and at the moment YT has control over that market

    SharpMaxwell ,
    @SharpMaxwell@lemmy.world avatar

    Annotations Restored For Youtube is also a really good one, adds back the old styled annotations to old videos that had them, makes old videos a little bit more watchable if they had important info in the annotations

    WiseMoth ,
    @WiseMoth@lemmy.world avatar

    Recommendation: add Vinegar for all the Apple (iOS, macOS, iPadOS) users. It’s suuuuper good

    nameisnotimportant ,
    @nameisnotimportant@lemmy.ml avatar

    Vinegar

    Users have to pay for it, correct?

    WiseMoth ,
    @WiseMoth@lemmy.world avatar

    They do, but it’s like 4 bucks and is well worth it imo

    DietBajaBlast ,

    The App Store says $1.99 right now. Even better!

    skylestia ,
    @skylestia@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    In addition to some of the ones listed in OP, I use

    • YouTube Auto Like - automatically likes videos you open them (optionally only when you’re subscribed to the channel). If you’re on a Chromium browser, Google removed this extension from their web store so you can’t install it from there anymore. But you can install it manually if you want by downloading it from the Github repo here.

    I also use the following userscripts:

    • Return Youtube Dislike - Does the same thing as the Return Youtube Dislike extension in the OP
    • Youtube Shorts Redirect - redirects Youtube Shorts to a full watch page, so you can watch them like a regular video.
    • Resize YT To Window Size - resizes the video player so that it fills in the entire dimensions of the browser window and moves video players to the top of the page so you can scroll down to see comments, recommend videos, etc.
    • YouTube CPU Tamer by AnimationFrame - reduces Youtube’s CPU usage during video playback. I don’t really understand the technical aspects but it’s all explained in the description of the userscript. This script IS NOT compatible with SponsorBlock!

    Stuff I’m looking for (if anyone has any recommendations):

    • Remove duplicate videos from a playlist
    • display playlists in a grid layout instead of a list layout
    • block youtube channels i don’t like
    dizzy ,
    @dizzy@lemmy.ml avatar

    You might be interested in pockettube. Not quite what you asked for but it does allow you to make groups of subscriptions and display those in a grid layout.

    skylestia ,
    @skylestia@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    pockettube looks great, thanks for the recommendation!

    Hyperi0n ,

    Why the hell would anyway want to poison their liked views with an extention that likes every video they watch?

    SteveMan ,

    I do this on my work and home account.

    I seldom watch ‘random’ videos, mostly stick to a large curated list of channels I’ve grown to like over the years and I got sick of always having to remember to like or even go back to like videos (as doing my small part of channel interaction is the least I could do for them).

    I enjoy all the videos of said channels (otherwise I wouldn’t be watching them…).

    The auto like is set to happen after 30% of the video and is very easy to hit the 0 key or - key to unlike or dislike on the small amount of videos I watch that don’t deserve a like.

    Pretty simple. A solution that works for many might not work for you and that’s just dandy.

    Hyperi0n ,

    The 30% watch and like option is a neet feature. Seems very customisable.

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