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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

WestyFlyer ,

I didn’t see it listed in the comments but Stopthe Madness is the best extension I use, helps with YouTube but also other sites:

apps.apple.com/us/app/…/id1583082931

marmo7ade ,

This extension brings back creates a new dislike pool of other people who also use the extension.

Fixed that for you. It does not show you current youtube dislike counts, which is what people actually want.

thecoolowl ,

They gathered as much data they could on dislikes before it was removed, so it also shows actual numbers on older videos.

JohnBoBon ,

My understanding is it gets the counts of dislikes from participating content creatos (the dislike count is still there, it’s just hidden except to the video authors) and for non-participating creators it uses data from the users with the extension. I think it applies some smart logic to predict the dislikes based on user feedback in that case, which may not be 100% accurate, but is likely at least somewhat close.

pixelvolt ,

Thank you for this, I was able to watch YouTube videos just fine with ublock enabled, but I didn’t really know about the YouTube shorts blocker addon. YouTube shorts are just annoying to look at.

stark ,

I use Firefox as my everyday browser and a Chromium browser for all my Google services.

Those of you that are using YouTube with Firefox, are you concerned about tracking while you’re signed into your Google account? Do you notice a decrease in performance while using YouTube on Firefox?

drphungky ,

I absolutely notice youtube is worse in Firefox, presumably because of uBlock because I didn’t have any of these installed (except enhancer) before I saw this post. It’s particularly bad on mobile. BUT I think it’s still worth it overall top have a better experience.

Reliant1087 ,

For some reason YouTube is far better on Firefox for me than on Chrome.

NightOwl ,

are you concerned about tracking while you’re signed into your Google account?

That’s what containers are for. support.mozilla.org/…/how-use-firefox-containers

You can also set cookies to wipe when you exit the browser and set exclusions.

S0berage ,
@S0berage@lemmy.world avatar

Great post OP!

Lord_Boffum ,

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.

zeekzag ,
@zeekzag@lemmy.world avatar

If you use a script manager (Tampermonkey, Violentmonkey, Greasemonkey, Firemonkey) I can recommend some userscripts:

  1. Tabview for Youtube - condenses comments, description, playlists and chat into a neatly organised sidebar,
  2. YT Resource Unholder - improves how YT handles resources and improves performance,
  3. YT CPU Tamer - more performance improvements,
  4. YT AV1 - forces YT to use AV1 for all videos.
DagingAnalog ,

What’s the benefit of AV1 on youtube?

zeekzag ,
@zeekzag@lemmy.world avatar

Videos encoded with AV1 are smaller and look better on lower bitrates so you save some bandwidth. I noticed it’s also a bit less straining on the CPU which is nice if you wanna save some battery juice if you’re on a laptop without a dGPU.

ryo ,

If you have constrained CPU power it’s better to use HW decoding on the iGPU so you have more headroom.

You can use AV1 but most hardware that’s not the latest will only be compatible with VP9 or even AVC1.

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

Oh, I see, thanks for the info!

Stealth_Bummer , (edited )

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.

Crul ,

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.

PipedLinkBot ,

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): piped.video/results?search_query=

piped.video/results?search_query=testing&sp=CAASA…

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

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

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.

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!

scarabic ,

I love to see all this fantastic innovation but it’s a shame that most of it is confined to desktop/laptop computers. 95% of my YouTube consumption is on my phone, iPad, and Roku. Those platforms just aren’t extensible in the same ways. It’s too bad because I’m least likely to sit at my gaming PC watching videos.

I will mention that if you go premium, ads are removed on all devices.

hsr ,
@hsr@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Points 1, 2, 3 and 5 are included in the Youtube Vanced app. If you’re using Apple devices that won’t really help you though.

Gestrid , (edited )

Vanced used to be the way to go, but the project isn’t being maintained anymore.

Instead, I’d recommend ReVanced. It can be pretty simple to setup. All you need is Vanced MicroG, ReVanced Manager, and a download of the recommended version of the YouTube app from APKMirror. Currently, the recommended version is v18.23.35. (ReVanced Manager will tell you what the recommended version is every time you go to patch YouTube.)

Install Vanced MicroG first. Then install and open ReVanced Manager. Open the “Patch” tab, “Select an application”, then select “Storage” and navigate to where the YouTube app you downloaded is located. Then “Select patches”, making sure to include the MicroG patch. Then select “Patch”, then “Install”. You’re done!

Bonus tip: After the patch process is complete, before you tap “Install”, tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right and select “Export” to export the patched APK in case you run into trouble with the installation itself. That way, you don’t have to rerun the whole patching process, and you have a backup.

Edit: It seems !revanced has a guide you can follow, too, in their Master Post.

bingbong ,

Use vinegar for iOS, it makes YouTube in safari a million times better

ours ,

Can you install Android apps on the Roku? SmartTubeNext is amazing on Android TV as it has most of these extensions integrated. On the Nvidia Shield TV is works like a charm.

Orionza ,
@Orionza@lemmy.zip avatar

I have a Shield and would like to try this.

ours ,

You have to side-load it and then it self-updates. I’ve used this guide techmogulchannel.com/tutorial-how-to-install-smar…. Do note that SmartTubeNext doesn’t support HDR on the Shield but that’s fine. If you really want it, just keep both the official Youtube app and SmartTube and switch if you want to watch something in HDR.

Orionza ,
@Orionza@lemmy.zip avatar

Oh thanks. I’ve marked this as to look into doing on my Shield. Thanks for the tips!

NightOwl , (edited )

phone, iPad, and Roku

I use newpipe x sponsorblock on my phone. I have my subscriptions imported and I actually like that I can retain a feed without having to be signed into a google account.

For iPad I got safari with adguard and sponsorblock installed and airplay that to the TV. Does Roku support airplay? So now I get not only blocked ads but segments I want blocked like being asking to like, subscribe, intros, outros, recaps, and sponsored segments.

If you just want to watch youtube on the iPad just use a piped instance which has sponsorblock built in. !piped

mojo ,

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.

Frellwit ,

I’d recommend going into the settings and enabling all the extra filters as well.

I’d recommend sticking with the defaults unless you have a specific use case where extra filters are needed. More filters = higher chance of breakage.

mojo ,

More risk, more reward I say!

decisivelyhoodnoises ,
@decisivelyhoodnoises@sh.itjust.works avatar

Agree. Enable only what you understand you should enable

tinned_tomatoes ,

Use revanced on Android

SeaJ , (edited )

Is Revanced better now? I remember trying it a year or two ago and it was garbage.

Edit: my issue was that I had downloaded a pre-compiled Revanced YouTube APK which was a pile of shit.

WEAPONX ,

Works well for me, and I’ve been using it basically since the beginning.

Hyperi0n ,

There’s never really been an issue with it. Just a little complicated to set up in the beginning.

Now it’s easy to install and it works with MicroG.

Gestrid ,

What’s the issue you were having with it?

SeaJ ,

The your I was having with it was that I downloaded a pre-compiled APK. Just compiled my own just now and it works great!

ridethisbike ,

Sounds to me like the older version had issues. Pre-compiled or self probably had nothing to do with it. Now you just have the newer better version that you happened to compile yourself

tinned_tomatoes ,

What do you mean? Last year, I effectively had to stop using it because Google was testing a new blocking method in the UK - this resulted in constant buffering.

A recent update has resolved this issue, and the app is back to being the best version of YouTube available.

ApeCavalryArt ,
@ApeCavalryArt@lemmy.world avatar

Also rec’ing ReVanced since Vanced died reddit.com/…/revanced_manager_guide_for_dummies/

samsy ,

Have you tried Clipious. It uses invidious servers and has all these sponsorblock stuff.

mojo , (edited )

I’ll give it a try, will it let me access my already existing youtube login with my subscriptions and reccomendations? That’s really the only thing im missing

edit: weird, I installed it and choose a public server. I never logged into my YouTube yet it seems to be getting my YouTube recommendations somewhat? Nvm they just seem to be similar stuff to what I watch.

samsy ,

Since it is invidious, there is no chance to log in to your yt account.

bilb ,
@bilb@lem.monster avatar
  • Pay for youtube premium

^ducks^

EnderWi99in ,

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.

DerKriegs ,
@DerKriegs@lemmy.ml avatar

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…

ClamDrinker ,

I had YT premium for a while, and then I just wanted to download some videos (you know, like they advertise you can) and they just didnt allow it. Had to either watch it in the YT app or on youtube.com on my PC. That’s not downloading - thats just streaming with less computation for youtube, which helps youtube but not me. What a great ‘premium benefit’!

Cancelled my premium right then and there, if they cant provide a feature as simple as just being able to download videos to mp4 or something, thats just misleading. Literally takes seconds to find a third party site or app (NewPipe) that does it.

Hankaaron ,

That’s what I do.

Everyone wants stuff for free and I get that. And I also get the “fuck big corporations” stance kinda…

But these services cost money. So we either pay for it directly (and yes they need to make a profit also - this is capitalism) or we have to watch ads. It’s not really a complicated concept. I hate watching ads and have $11 per month to spare so I pay.

Ath47 ,

I also pay for premium, so I don’t have to worry about ads. But that only covers the first extension on this list. The others are all useful and still not available with premium.

imperator3733 ,

Yeah, I also pay for YouTube Premium (have since it was YouTube Red), and get a ton of value out of it, but I’m still bombarded by all those absurd “Shorts” clogging up my subscriptions feed. I’ll have to try the linked extension - I’ve been meaning to see what’s available…

ZeroHora ,
@ZeroHora@lemmy.world avatar

If there a possibility that if I paid for the service and they stop getting my data and reselling and they start to respect my privacy, fine I’ll pay for it, but that not what’s happens.

WaterBottleOnAShelf ,

I paid for youtube premium which not only gets rid of ads, but gives you access to the youtube music app. I got rid of Spotify because of that and end up paying less money for more functionality.

cxx ,

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.

Black_Gulaman ,
@Black_Gulaman@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I’m a revanced user. I’m just curious and had to ask an actual premium user. The youtube app ads are gone and premium features are available.

But how is the experience when dealing with vloggers who keep plugging their sponsors in their video? and the constant like and subscribe adlib reminders of other vloggers?

cause for me, that’s one thing that revanced has solved over the premium option of youtube.

Edit: to say it before someone asks. I do pay for other premium streaming platforms, but I am selective, because, you know, my resources aren’t infinite.

cxx ,

YouTube premium doesn’t change anything about the videos themselves, so you still get the sponsor and like/subscribe plugs.

I understand there are extensions that remove that stuff but I’ve never tried them as I watch YouTube on many different devices and can’t be bothered to tweak each and every one. Also those don’t bother me that much and are easy enough to skip.

Black_Gulaman ,
@Black_Gulaman@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Thank you for taking the time to reply. It seems that I will stay with revanced for now. Though we’ll see what youtube offers in the future.

avidamoeba ,
@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

As another Premium subscriber, at this point I feel a sense of incompleteness if I don’t hear about the video’s sponsor or like-comment-subscribe.

I’m also selective of what I pay for. YouTube Premium won out against some others. Having YT Music along with it is also nice.

marmo7ade ,

People spend hundreds of hours watching youtube or playing a video game and then complain they had to pay for it. The entitlement is disgusting.

Thulcander ,

I pay, i get the family pass and have 4 other people added. It also works for watching youtube on smart devices that don’t always have blocking options - pihole setups sometimes block legit google services that keep smarthome operations from happening.

4815162342 , (edited )

.

mrmanager ,
@mrmanager@lemmy.today avatar

I would if it was another company than Google but I’m not going to support big tech companies with my money.

Google is tracking people all over the internet, and is one of the richest companies in the world. Now they want to get even more money? Right.

I’m paying for email and search but they are not from big tech.

nl4real ,

Not paying 12/month just to block ads. I don’t care about the other stuff it has.

marmo7ade ,

Technically I am paying less than $12 / month for youtube premium because I have Pixel Pass. My total monthly google bill is much higher. Worth every cent. :)

Jarix ,

This is the problem. You have a monthly bill to google.

This is why we cant have good things. Because too many people are cant just say no i wont pay for something that didnt used to be and doesnt need to.

latewizard ,

VPN to Turkey, get YouTube Premium for like $2 a month.

avidamoeba ,
@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

If you watch a lot of YouTube and can afford it, it’s totally worth it. 👌

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

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