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.

112 points

i constantly gotta swap invidious instances because youtube is being relentless in their war against invidious.

but the ui is awesome and I use it every day.

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45 points

apparently freetube automatically uses a new invidious instance every time it starts up.

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31 points
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It seems to be at random, and many of the instances don’t work correctly. You’re better off finding one that does, and setting it as default.

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3 points

Or host your own :) less likely to be blocked by Google if it’s just you using it.

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6 points

Invidious is awesome, if possible, self hosting one in docker is great and keeps it up to date

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3 points

How do I go about doing that (finding a good one and setting it up)? Its been a month that either the video loads or it doesn’t and when it does work it is extremely slow to the point I can’t watch on 1080p.

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2 points

honestly I keep a tab open with the list of invidious instances open. because every day I usually have to change the instance. or swap it around.

invidious is fighting youtube very hard, but youtube is fighting back. so its difficult to keep up with.

i would keep an eye on the invidious instances list. and change to a different one if need be.

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2 points

Thanks for the reply! Just went through the whole list and none of the instances worked for me. I always get: “[invidious ](SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input)”. Googling the error led me to https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/issues/5506 ← There someone posted an unlisted API that works. It seems non official since it is not listed on https://api.invidious.io/ … is that safe to use? Thanks in advance

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1 point

I just use native API and VPN

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36 points

I prefer NewPipe/Tubular so much that I don’t even use my desktop for YouTube anymore.

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2 points

NewPipe stopped working for me some time ago, switched over to rvx which seems to work fine.

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16 points

It stops working occasionally but they release fixed versions pretty fast.

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2 points

Try pipepipe, they update more often than OG newpipe/tubular

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1 point

you can run it on your desktop with waydroid btw

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1 point

i would like to say I prefer Newpipe, but those guys have a pretty annoying bug that’s been going on for years now and it’s still not been fixed.

If you watch a video and then go back to a list and scroll up to the top, the app crashes.

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-18 points

youtube is cancer

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20 points

As someone who’s survived ACTUAL cancer, and spent a year of my life dealing with this shit, and dealing with the aftermath of it now, having to get a colonoscopy this friday as part of my checkups, you can fuck right off with your casual usage of that word.

Lets slice open your chest, put a medical port in a surgury where you’re still awake, and still somewhat feel whats happening because thats how they do it with todays medical insurance. Thats what we get in America. Lets have you on chemotherapy for a year so you’re so out of it and so physically weak that you can’t wash your own dishes. You have to ask a friend to pull the suction cup drain so the water in the sink can drain so you’re able to individually lift dish.

Lets have the government tell you that cancer doesn’t qualify you for disability, so you end up with $0 income for 9 months, and expected to pay rent.

Lets have bus drivers roll their eyes at you for being 40 years old, and not able to lift groceries that aren’t that heavy. Made to feel like an elderly person, but people treat you like an asshole for wasting their time.

Lets have you go through that, and tell me again how youtube is cancer.

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-13 points

i will die from cancer

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5 points
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I’m sorry to read you were treated so poorly during your treatment. I hope you are in a better situation, if not now then in the near future.

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3 points

Well, I brought up the worst parts because it emphasises the harsh realities yoj go through with that.

But you’ll notice I didn’t speak ill of the actual treatment plan. The people I would see every 2 weeks. I’d be brought into this room, and hooked up to this machine, and the thing would take 6 hours every time. But the nurses were nice. They took care of anything they could. The one time my body rejected the chemo, the head nurse fixed things before I knew what was happening. My skin had turned lobster red, and was in the process of poisoning itself to shut down the foreign chemo drugs. This being after 3 months of treatment. I just felt my skin a little warm, and I felt dizzy. But unrelated to the cancer, I grew up being told never to ask for help. Always tough it out. Which is TERRIBLE advice. If there are any new dads out there, don’t teach your kids they shouldn’t get help when they need it.

So I’m sitting in the chair, knowing I’m burning, knowing I feel dizzy, and not sure if that’s bad enough to warrant asking for help. I’m looking at the floor, thinking “It’ll pass…just let it pass”.

And the head nurse sees me, rushes over, and starts adjusting the chemo pump. She says (not asks, says), “You’re feeling hot right now, and you shouldn’t stand. You’re dizzy, and you have no leg strength. You will fall on your face if you try. You’re having a chemical reaction, and this dosage has become too strong. We’ll lower the dosage.”

All of this, without me trying to bring attention to myself. I didn’t want to worry her, when so many others in that room are elderly. I figured I’ll be fine.

What I didn’t know is that if left untreated like that, your body will eventually go into shock. From there you could pass out. You could have a heart issue. You could have a seizure. It all depends on how your body tries to react. And she told me, in no uncertain terms, that if I ever feel somethkng is odd, to ALWAYS speak up. They’d rather have 100 false alarms than 1 ignored real issue. Which was total culture shock for me. I’m used to being ignored.

And my family were there for me too. Financially especially. I had no income. So they paid my rent. For a year. I tried to pay my sister back for a portion of what she paid in rent, and she wouldn’t take it.

So, yeah, my message highlighted the worst parts of the experience. But I had some people looking out for me too.

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12 points

Damn. That’s brutal.

I’ve used that phrase myself in the past, and never thought of this, despite having done hospice care. Thanks for the perspective. That’s serious, you made me rethink things.

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6 points

“X is cancer”, “X spreads like cancer”, “X is cancerous” are so incredibly common phrases. Are they generally considered inappropriate?

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-2 points

“Spreads like cancer” not so much to me. “Is cancerous” I would say to avoid saying, unless it legitimately IS a risk for cancer.

I was told that being in a brick building, is not a threat for cancer. However, living in a brick home after say 40 years, actually CAN be a risk for cancer. Which not a lot of people would know. So I think keeping “is cancerous” to an actual legitimate basis is a good idea to spread actual good information. Because if I said “brick houses are cancerous”, that sounds like an exaggeration, but in the long run it’s true.

“Is cancer” really just depends on how casually its being used. Something that causes you a mild inconvienence? Yeah, I’d find that offensive. But using it towards something that may not be literal cancer, but still poses a physical harm, I find less offensive. Like saying “Nestle is a cancer on this planet”. I wouldn’t find that offensive, because Nestle uses literal slavery, while draining the planet of natural resources, and giving the middle finger to everyone else. Yeah, THAT can be called a cancer. But youtube? Put on an adblock, move on with your day.

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1 point
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Deleted by creator
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2 points

completely agree. not sure what the downvotes are for.

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70 points

SmartTube beta on Android TV is fanfuckingtastic.

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4 points

+1

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29 points

Ive been using it for years now and holy shit. Even if it doesnt blocked ads and even youtubers own ads, the app itself is FAR superior than anything what this vanilla youtube app is supposed to be.

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16 points

Even if it doesnt blocked ads and even youtubers own ads

You mean even if it didn’t? Because it definitely DOES and you’re absolutely right about the rest

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11 points

Yes thats what i mean. Even if it didnt then still the app is SUPERIOR IN EVERY WAY than vanilla youtube. But it does block everything. Its a godsend.

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2 points

Even just having Sponsorblock built-in changed my life!!

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4 points

Can it be used on a “normal” android phone or just android tv?

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5 points

It’s a no for phones, set top (android) boxes only. My friend has had success running it on Windows 11 and casting to his TV.

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3 points

Huh? I run SmartTube beta on my phone. I don’t recall having to do anything “magic” to get it working.

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16 points

on Android phone you might wanna check out Tubular or LibreTube.

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4 points

Use revanced

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1 point
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3 points
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I love this app and would use it even if it didn’t block ads. The user experience is just so much better than the regular YouTube TV app. I’ve sent a few donations to the developer to thank them for their work.

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1 point

Don’t forget Playlet for Roku!

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5 points
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I would like Freetube 100x more if it had a web UI instead of a non-browser interface. A web UI with a companion extension to automatically redirect YT video links to it could be so seamless.

If it’s hosting a server on the local network that would also provide a perfect solution to not having any way for view history or settings to automatically sync between different devices.

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26 points
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you might like Piped or Invidious with Libredirect addon.

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