Vanced is pretty good. It seems like it's just the official YouTube app but with premium for free.<p>Newpipe is another ad-free YouTube app. <a href="https://newpipe.net/" rel="nofollow">https://newpipe.net/</a><p>It's FOSS and doesn't use your Google account, or any of the YouTube APIs. You can still manage subscriptions but you have to import them manually.
I love Vanced! The only downside is that it's not able to avoid ads when casting to Chromecast.<p>SkyTube is a minimalistic Youtube Android client that can avoid ads when casting:
<a href="https://github.com/SkyTubeTeam/SkyTube" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/SkyTubeTeam/SkyTube</a><p>For those of you using Android TV, I highly recommend SmartTubeNext, a Youtube client with no ads, and includes SponsorBlock[1]:
<a href="https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext</a><p>[1] <a href="https://sponsor.ajay.app" rel="nofollow">https://sponsor.ajay.app</a>
Using YouTube only via Firefox with the uBlock Origin plugin works pretty well too. The simple solution without requiring any additional apps. Firefox has its own quirks which are discussed on Hacker News at length, but it's good enough.<p>Actually, I've considered installing an older version of Firefox and disabling updates. But I feel that might pose security risks, and if at some point there's a novel virus requiring updating, I'm afraid the shock might be too big, as compared to a little shock every few months. Still considering what's wise here...
Funny how people want content but don’t want to support content creators via ads or paying for YouTube Premium.<p>The internet in a nutshell. Ironically if people weren’t so avoidant of paying for digital content, ads, and the subsequent tracking, would’ve never emerged.
My "killer use case" for Vanced or NewPipe isn't even the ad removal, it's being able to continue playing the audio while the app is minimised or the phone is locked.<p>That is such a basic restriction that free YouTube places upon itself that ruins my main use case - listening to a couple of videos on my commute to and from work.
Two things about adblock that I've noticed:<p>1. Apps like Vanced are probably going to become necessary once first-party tracking and ads start being adopted. YouTube has proven that if there's enough incentive, DNS-based adblocking like pi-hole can be rendered useless. But the fact that Vanced is a reverse-engineered application means that the barrier to entry for contributing is significantly higher than if a runtime more open to extensibility were used, like the browser's. A hypothetical shift to WASM applications might end up becoming another step in such an arms race.<p>2. AdBlock is likely the only reason I've spent hundreds more hours on YouTube that I wouldn't have if I were forced to watch ads. I consider ads a waste of time like many people, but my degree of distaste for them has led me to reflexively back out of any service where adblock is not an option. An example of this is Twitch, where the ads are directly injected into the video stream. As a result, I don't use Twitch. I have to wonder how many hours of time this has saved me in the long run, because I have a susceptibility to some of the content their algorithm recommends me. If every known adblock method is ultimately defeated in some hypothetical timeline, I'm reasonably certain that my distaste for ads will win out against my addiction to browsing article headlines. I have to wonder where all my newly restored attention away from the Internet would go in that case, and if I would ultimately turn out to be a happier person.
Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It feels heavy on negative externalities.
This is nonfree, I've used it and found it a little ostentatious for my taste.<p>NewPipe is open-source and the interface makes more sense to me.<p>I think Vanced preserves Chromecast compatibility (correct me if I'm wrong) which NewPipe can't do.
Oh hell. I love Vanced but I hate when it gets picked up on outlet like HN. The higher profile it is the more likely Google will crack down on it. "Keep it secret, keep it safe"
I prefer Newpipe since it's FOSS.<p><a href="https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/releases" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/releases</a><p>Vanced appears to be a cracked/modified version of the official YouTube app.
Vanced is awesome, except for the fact that they broke casting to my TV a while ago so I had to downgrade to an older version and hasn't updated for a while. Not sure if they fixed it now.<p>Also I tried to find something similar to put on my iPad and my god it's annoying. iOS allows you to sideload app if you have a dev cert (not too sure on the details) but you have to renew the cert every 7 days or so, so you need to keep a server app running in the network to automatically renew the cert for you.
While at university in the US, I subscribed to YouTube Premium. Once I graduated and moved back home, I was able to continue paying for YouTube Premium (and still do), but using any of the features such as background playback required me to use a VPN. So, I use Vanced. I like to think my Premium membership is going towards the creators I watch, but as far as I'm concerned, I did my part.
On Android I use Firefox with µBlock Origin and the extension that blocks the current focus API so I can listen to podcast while my phone is in my pocket.
If people want to just see youtube videos without needing to see any comments or recommendations while removing adsd, there is SkyTube [1]. Its FOSS, minimal and very easy to use.<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/SkyTubeTeam/SkyTube" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/SkyTubeTeam/SkyTube</a>
These days I simply cannot use YouTube without Premium + SponsorBlock. The ad skipping works really well and pretty much makes the videos watchable for me.<p>For a year now I have been using YT exclusively on desktop, until I learned about Vanced recently. It has be a godsend as I can finally watch videos on mobile.
Used vanced for years. Works nice. But doesn't work on my shield. Casting from my phone to the shield results into annoying ads. After thinking for a while I thought that the premium YouTube membership isn't that bad. I use it so often. I think it fair to pay a price for it.
I'm surprised this is posted here. I don't even have an Android but I thought it was so well known that this feels just like a blatant ad. You can't go to a single post on reddit about youtube, adblockers or pihole and not find Vanced mentioned dozens of times.
I use firefox + uBlock Origin + <some extension I can't remember the name of that lets videos play if it goes into the background>. Is there something I am missing out on?
Newpipe has been mentioned a lot in this thread.<p>If you're looking for a Linux / Windows equivalent, try Freetube. To me, they're essentially the same app for different platforms.
Feature request: add an option to hide the feed.<p>I can do this on desktop with browser extensions, but there's no equivalent solution on mobile.