Comment by ss3000 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ss3000 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

> This is the best youtube client, bar none. It keeps local history and "subscriptions" without requiring you to log in to google.

Isn't it funny how one man's feature is another man's bug?

Not supporting logging in with a Google account to keep subscriptions and history synchronized across devices is exactly what disqualifies it from consideration for me, and I suspect I'm not alone here.

For those like me there's YouTube Vanced, which is almost an exact clone of YouTube except without the ads, allows you to disable a bunch of distracting "features" like info cards and watermarks, and with the ability to use MicroG in place of Play Services for the actual logging in with Google feature: https://vanced.app/

Isn't it great that we both have the ability to choose the YouTube replacement app that works best for us despite Google technically "owning" the platform though? This is why I love Android. (EDIT: Re-read this and realized this could be seen as inflammatory. Really did not mean to start a platform war. Just glad that Android is a choice that's available to those who value this kind of thing.)

vanced is just the normal youtube app with just some modifications to block ads and background playback. It is closed sourced, not to mention, and uses a modified version of MicroG that works in unknown ways to access/sync with the google account, which is very different to the original MicroG (which has been developed to replace Google Services from your phone to minimize google tracking your activities.) . If you don't want unknown apps get access to your google account or if you care about your privacy/security, don't use Vanced, stick with NewPipe.

Yes the app itself is closed sourced, but FWIW their MicroG fork is not: https://github.com/YTVanced/VancedMicroG

Their stance on why they can't open source it sounds reasonable: https://github.com/YTVanced/VancedWebsite/issues/10

But I agree that if you have sensitive data on your google account you should make a value judgement yourself on if the extra convenience/features on Vanced is worth the risk over NewPipe.

I personally use a different mail provider so I don't have much sensitive information on my Google account, basically just using it for YouTube and Play Store.

Or create a Google account just for this purpose (YouTube).

More specifically stick to v14.21.54 of Vanced since otherwise you can see some ads now. I had updated to the latest one and started seeing ads below the video playing and when I am at the home page of my account.

Interesting. Are those ads benefiting the creators of the videos or are they ads that only make money for the creator of Vanced?

Also it is worth mentioning that you can import your youtube subsciptions to newpipe. https://newpipe.schabi.org/FAQ/tutorials/import-export-data/

I prefer to use Vanced over the NewPipe. New Pipe somehow not always works properly and searching for videos is also not perfect.

But.

NewPipe allows downloading the videos which is great. Sharing video function in Vanced allows using NewPipe for download directly from Vanced application.

Many people are trying to move away from Google and Youtube, the cross-device and cross-network tracking which this allows being deemed detrimental by more and more people.

There is also Bitchute and Hooktube, if you want to get at Youtube videos without using Google more than absolutely necessary.

Piggybacking on my own comment, I'd love to hear if anyone has ideas on how to block Ads on a Chromecast...

YouTube Premium? Paying for YouTube is the best decision I've ever made when it comes to how much time and frustration I've saved per dollar.

Unfortunately, YouTube premium is not available in all countries, so some of us have have to go for more "hacky" solutions if we want to avoid ads.

You might want to consider setting up a Pi-Hole. Not sure how well those work with chromecasts though.

Pi hole cannot block ads inside of YouTube app, only on the web. I suppose that will be similar with Chromecast.

Youtube ads work in a way that domain blocking(pi-hole) cannot block them.

Chromecast uses Google DNS servers ignoring your DHCP DNS. You need to block Google DNS servers on your router so then the Chromecast will switch to your DHCP DNS.

Also, on my experience, some Youtube ads are served through the same domain that serves the video so you won't be completely ad free.

Cast from a local PC on the network. View from a browser with uBlock Origin. I forget that YouTube even has ads most of the time. Using another person's device is always a painful awakening.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com