Launched Playtoob, a simple YouTube companion, because my 5yo daughter loves it | Hacker News Reader

Launched Playtoob, a simple YouTube companion, because my 5yo daughter loves it

playtoob.com

126 pointsdevrimco78 comments

> Just select the channels you love, paste their IDs.

[feature request] That's too technical. add all the other way to get to the chanell like https://www.youtube.com/@Disney https://www.youtube.com/Disney https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_5niPa-d35gg88HaS7RrIw and the youtu.be version and even paste one video and get the full channel.

> No algorithms.

Why? I like algorithms. I used yahoo seach untill altavista created the algorithm.

> No suggestions.

Not sugesting other channels is a feature for me. Some channels are very stupid but my children love them. Not sugesting them is a huge win.

[super bonus feature] filter videos by date. Old Super Slime Sam videos are nice, but the recent ones are not.

noted the feature requests, thank you. already started working on the channel name thingy.

i also like algorithms but i decided it was not for kids, when i saw a friends little son watching video of a toy spiderman being bathed by a toy barbie acted by an old bald russian man, i decided it was not for kids. :)

also i would like to watch the latest high rated videos from only my favorite channels while i'm having a sandwich at my desk.

super bonus feature is also nice i'll try my best on that, as it requires a mega youtube request..

cheers.

Agreed, YouTube Kids is not always for kids. There is some very weird, sinister stuff on there that isn't in-your-face obvious. Stuff like that is just weird, it's definitely better to approve certain channels and keep the kiddos from getting pulled into any algorithms!

Folding Ideas had a great video on it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKp2gikIkD8

I mainly use YouTube through the app (although I’m slowly moving off it using RSS and yt-dlp) and my account can’t watch age restricted videos because I’m not that keen on giving google my drivers license or credit card. The amount of totally normal content being age restricted and the amount of highly questionable or outright disturbing or inappropriate content marked as “for kids” is mind boggling. Especially when you consider everything that’s neither age restricted or for kids.

> i also like algorithms but i decided it was not for kids

Yeah, I’ve only ever heard negative things about video suggestions for kids. I guess the key search term for those who don’t know is “Elsagate”. Normal looking videos that draw in kids with popular characters and then suddenly they are doing bloody surgery on each other or whatever. I don’t even know if there’s negative intent on the part of the creators or if it’s just algo-profit drive led to this.

>negative intent

I think clickbaiting children in to a less-than-savory theme so you can get their ad revenue is probably enough negative intent to make me grossed out by them.

Very fair. You just exposed a part of my brain to me, where I put “bad profit-driven motive” into a separate bucket that I consider less severe than “direct evil desire for harm”, and now that I see that I’m not sure how bad that thought process sucks. It’s definitely driven by getting (too?) used to things having an average level of shittiness.

I totally feel that! I'm there too. The average level of shittiness has increased so much I basically don't expect things to work unless the specific feature makes the company money. Otherwise, it feels like an afterthought that may or may not function properly. Also, in case it was unclear, my original response wasn't meant as any criticism towards you. More just disgust towards those folks.

If they just want money, they can keep video suitable for kids. A common conspiracy is, these creator of Elsagate-like video try to make predating kids easier in worldwide.

Algoritm may be deciding which episodes to repeat more often, or if channels shouls be interleaved. (If a channel has 5 min videos and other 30 in videos, do you show one of each or 6 to 1?).

I agree that using algorithms torecomend crappy videos from other channels is bad, but it's not the only use https://xkcd.com/534/

>> No algorithms

> Why? I like algorithms.

>> No recommendations

> Not sugesting them is a huge win.

Feels contradictory. They’re both just algorithms.

Nope. Recommending from pre approved channel population is fine. Recommending new unapproved channels not.

This is exactly what YouTube Kids should be. Instead, because if the algo, because of the suggestions, it's a mind-numbing hell scape of complete trash.

Great job! Gonna recommend this to everyone at my kid's school

Thank you sooooooooo much for supporting the idea and the project. Can not agree more and mega huge thanks for going the distance to recommend to others. Cheers.

Recommend parents give their kids something more interesting than putting them in front of YouTube while you’re at it

:) kids are a little bit demanding when it comes to that. and you sometimes need a silent cup of coffee. plus super simple songs sing better songs than me.

You can always tell who either doesn't have kids or doesn't take care of them full time.

My kid: - draws - paints - reads (finished the Harry Potter series for the 3rd time and is discussing hidden gems with me) - records stories and issues then as a podcast - plays keyboard - tablet is limited to 1 hr a day and they are mostly chatting with friends

All this is a result of me saying "that sounds like your problem" when they came up to me with the classic "I'm bored".

A little entertainment now and then isn't a bad thing. Unless it's on YouTube Kids without supervision.

Hell yeah breeder fam. My line is "dealing with boredom is a skill to develop, go lift kid" which I'm sure they don't understand precisely but definitely get the gist of.

Hi, this is a very simple Youtube playing companion, to watch what you actually choose. I'm a father and a developer. My children needed this. So, I'm lucky I could build it. This became also my preferred Youtube watching experience. Please try?

It says it plays "The best videos from the channel". How is that decided without algorithms? I'm not challenging you I'm just curious. This seems like a great thing, like the copy says "Now there's easily something to watch during dinner" I just don't understand if it's just most recent videos or what.

yeah. full disclosure, i go far back to get latest couple of hundreds of videos. (i may increase this in the future) and filter out the crap that is live, shorts, and all the restricted non embeddable ones. and i get all their stats. so i try to have around at least 100 "proper" ones of the latest videos.

even for mrbeast for example it goes back till 2019. and believe me, old videos are not that attractive to "kids", i was going to say, but i found myself skipping them too.

and present the user with an option to order by highest rated or highest viewed.

this way i get latest videos of the channel. eg. ordered by the most viewed. and it plays continuously. shuffled in batches of 5.

What you described is clearly an algorithm. But i assume what you mean by “no algorithm” is that you are not using a machine learning based recommendation engine.

yeah definitely, mine is only a flat out get latest and sort. machine learning based recommendation engine is whole another level.

One could say "no advanced algorithms" without being too wordy about it. I suppose.

stealing this, thank you ;)

I’ve been looking for this for 2 years for my 5 1/2 year old. Ultimately, I deleted the YouTube app and don’t allow the website anymore (content was only through Netflix and Disney+). But now we’ll give it another try. Thanks for writing this.

yes. the same here. and definitely why i created it. because there are wonderful videos and creators. and kids love them, of course. but the signal-to-noise on youtube and its recommendations boy they are scary.

Behind the signup form is a thumbnail for this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaiKVF2QhnM

It's definitely not one I'd choose to showcase for child safety.

oh no you're right its randomly picked from the already added channels. until you pick your own channels i chose to do that. but, yeah you have a point. maybe i'll remove that option? or pick 10 safe ones only?

removed that channel from the loop at least, for now. :(

Using AI could have prevented this. So the no AI, or algorithms can be also a negative thing as the example shows. I understand not using it for recommendation because it still has false positives, but using it for filtering could have prevented this. And false negatives for filtering is not so bad and could be just used to put filtered videos in a list that the parent can review, in the case that some good videos are getting accidentally filtered.

don't get me wrong i love ai. but i want people to have a chance to just watch the videos from the channels they like. both are good.

plus, my bad idea was to keep everything shuffled until someone select a channel.

plus plus, i can't do what you said, i'm not that talented. :)

You're presumably operating out of Estonia, so American laws like COPPA[1] probably don't apply to you (disclaimer IANAL). I have no idea if the EU and/or Estonia have counterpart law(s).

Nonetheless, the complete lack of a privacy policy at the time of writing this comment is concerning particularly because you are (explicitly!) interacting with and handling data concerning children.

I would strongly advise consulting with a lawyer about what legal measures you need to comply with for a service like this.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Online_Privacy_Prot...

thank you i'm immediately starting to work on it. but actually it is not a kids software. it is a "latest video player from the channels you like" as a youtube companion. focus is that, not kids. but thank you i'll check what i need to do.

No AI, but it plays latest proper videos from the channels you pick. It doesn't suggest any weird video to your kids. Your children watch whatever you pick to watch.

For our house all we need is Blippi, Ms Rachel, and Super Simple Play with Caitie! Maybe add some popular channels that can be shared with a quick link to use your tool. Or a way to chain them together with a simple UrL parameter ChanelID1+ChanelID2 etc

you can just easily add their channel ids, comma separated at once, pasting to the box in the screenshot.. screenshot : https://snipboard.io/acH8wg.jpg but then again i can add popular bundles for people to pick from.

Hi again. As this post is about to be buried deep within HN... I want to say thank you all for caring... Sorry, I messed up a little today. Didn't expect this much attention, and apparently, I wasn't ready :) I learned what "hug of death" is. Loved it.

But I fixed what I messed up during the day. And now everything is working properly. So anyone had any trouble today registering or adding channels can do now. For any issue please ping me from any of the contact channels there. Some of you did. So thank you all. Cheers.

no gif to show it working? just a form to sign up?

i have this screenshot: https://storage.googleapis.com/indie-hackers.appspot.com/pos...

but you're right. will do. thank you.

some more screenshot : https://snipboard.io/acH8wg.jpg

Sounds excellent.

I download whole channels and serve them on Plex. It requires a fair bit of management, and doesn't work when traveling, or if my desktop PC is VPN'd somewhere or off. This is all to prevent suggestions and random browsing. A much simpler solution is very welcome.

Same, but served via Jellyfin. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out Tubesync. It makes managing the downloading side a breeze.

https://github.com/meeb/tubesync

you guys are muuuuuch moooore talented than I am. :)

I made two:

https://unli.xyz/eject/ -- no login, data saved to local browser, you can export to CSV

https://github.com/chapmanjacobd/library -- similar to Plex but CLI-only and no "server" or downloads needed.

Brilliant idea. YouTube Kids isn't safe for kids IMO, I've said it loads. Good luck. Do you curate the videos or just prevent autosuggestions and autoplay?

Yes! Definitely agree. I don't curate videos. I just let people watch the channels they want to watch. Add a channel, it plays that channel. Add multiple, it shuffles them. There are no autosuggestions.

There are great creators on Youtube. But algos do not let people reach them. Youtube is a beautiful archive and a great search engine. But, you don't watch a search engine :)))

Related: I recently learned that in the youtube kids app the parent can sign in and select only pre-approved accounts, and can disable search and recommendations.

yeah you're definitely right. i tried it. it is extremely painful to add any channel to it. its country limited, and afaik you have no free option to add any channel you choose. and it still suggests some stuff, channel bundles, which are boring to children and such.

plus, there is no option for me :) i'm also thinking of myself.

Nice idea! Does it play through the user’s logged-in account? Or in other words, will it use my YouTube Premium account to play the videos without ads?

that part is interestingly solved by youtube i guess. it actually does not play through user's account. but i also have premium, and never saw any ads. but must watch more i guess..

I made something kinda similar to this but not marketed to kids, it does not require an account, and it is open source:

https://unli.xyz/eject/

https://github.com/chapmanjacobd/library-lite

This is great, I was looking for something similar

Thank you. Makes me very happy that it works for you too. Cheers.

i guess i already hit some quotas somewhere. i'm very sorry. i wasn't expecting this. :(

kinda fixed the quota troubles.

kinda fixed the quota and signup problems i guess. :(

what would you suggest as a demo, i'm sensing it is also what i did wrong/missing. free account is not a demo enough? maybe some video? some gif? some screenshots?

Is an app like this, that mainly is for watching videos in a skin, against youtube license agreement terms?

I love this idea, want this, but for android!

yeah app is whole another jurisdiction :) but i use both on mobile and tablet as an icon on desktop. faster, easier to update, no request any security permissions, as it does not need, plain simple player website.

Via add to homescreen on android, https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/ouILWN1_-vjtYjmf_4ogCXuQVxU=/7...

Thanks. What about the web version? Isn't it against youtube policies too?

no. this is not against youtube policies. i checked it couple of times. as it simply embeds videos, without forcing anything. and is not the same experience as youtube. it is a companion. and also i'm using the api very conservatively, pre-calculated every request. but time will show. you can't guess big tech.

i meant with mobile applications the bureaucracy, the development necessary and the update cycle and even the size of the icons matter to be approved. and they may accept and they may not. so not only youtube, play store and ios store policies interfere. i can't say i like it. there's already a fight against them from other big-techs against the app stores, even the EU is against their monopoly. well, i'll shut up now :)

Why only 16/32 videos per channel? Why not all? What’s the limiting factor here?

i only wanted to limit currently on whatever is going to create server burden and fill api quotas. i already started hitting free quotas on youtube api and a couple of more, and already feel like i may need to upgrade server.

and also wanted to create a fun enough free account, with 256 videos in rotation. but a strong paid account with 1024 videos in rotation, which is almost around the movie/series rotation of a netflix account.

also youtube is there for everything the creators share, i just wanted to create a "filterable customizable sortable latest videos watching" companion to them not replace them, i guess that is also not allowed by the api usage.

> A strong paid account with 1024 videos in rotation, which is almost around the movie/series rotation of a netflix

That sounds a lot more convincing than "32 videos from each creator"

Signup doesn't work for me. Hug of death?

yes sir i guess it is, i never experienced something like that before. now i know why "scaling" is important. talking to the server company. :) :(

can you please try again. i think its fixed now.

YouTube kids?

youtube kids suggests weird videos in foreign languages. does not allow me to pick exact channels i want my kids to watch.

and also there is no option for me to watch the latest high rated videos by the creator's i like. screenshot: https://snipboard.io/acH8wg.jpg

YouTube Kids is the equivalent of crack for kids.

couldn't have said it better myself.

Appreciate this release! I have a 3 year old and It was becoming difficult to manage what he was watching. One thing that disturbs me most about the Youtube App is that it's search functionality is extremely limited. If I search "educational videos" on youtube.com i see so much more variety of videos and channels vs youtube tv app, the search seems so filtered and honestly does not even show the videos I see on youtube.com. So thank you for the tool!

I am currently using it on a spare apple device, airplayed to my apple tv, with the iphone screen off, video playing in background, and auto play of next videos. idk... seems like perfection to me.

I also appreciate this project because it's so cool that you had this idea and then executed on it. I have the ability to execute but I just don't have the ability to think of ideas :D. I def want to try and create something similar to this!

One suggestion would be to add another tool on the site that output's a channel's id when a user supplies a youtube channel's URL or just accept URLs in your channel id field and do the all the lookup of the channel ID in the backend. I know there are easy ways to do it while on the desktop. I wasn't able to quickly find a way to do it on the phone. Quickest way I found was to use a 3rd party site where I supply the URL and it outputs information about a channel including it's channel id. I am using iphone.

Oh my goodness! I'm very happy that it worked out for you too! Thank you so much for the kind words! Yes I started working on the channel id part, gotta make that easier for sure. My wife has been complaining at me for that too :) I'm thinking both, name->id, and also, even video-url->channel-id.

youtube made that very weird in their API, every query has costs, and finding by username is more expensive, there are old usernames, which are not channel custom-urls right now. very mixed-up.

well, anyway long story short, I'll do it! Thank you for your message. Cheers.

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