I used to use NewPipe back in the days of yore. Then I got Youtube Premium since it bundled in Youtube Music as well which I used. But the former’s app on mobile is a shit show. Even after paying, you are asked to tip random creators, purchase merchandise[ which are shown as actual ads below videos] and join channels to access exclusive videos for more money. Basically pay money once, and then pay more money for more content.
Okay, one could argue atleast the above goes to a channel’s creators and helps them. How would one say then that the Youtube app still doesn’t have a systemwide option to choose video quality for all videos. New Pipe had that option long ago, but Youtube thinks it’s user base are immature who need to be coddled with only two options like “High” and “Data Saver”.
Despite having a Premium thing, I finally crossed over to a Newpipe fork Tubular [available on F Droid] today simply because the paying experience on Youtube Mobile is so bad. I can’t fathom how bad it would be for free customers using the official app.
Also the problem of the algorithm that thinks it knows what you like to see instead of showing your subscriptions
“Six months ago you did a single search of a walkthrough for a Mario 64 level, so here is a feed filled with only Mario 64 speedruns”
I’m always wary of clicking a YouTube link scared it would poison the feed.
Newpipe solved this
Why not browse your subscriptions through subscriptions section? I understand that it’s annoying that you can’t make it default on startup in the app but it’s there.
From the app drawer in android you can long press YouTube to get this drop down:
Then hold and drag subscriptions to your home screen.
I always hear about people saying “my subscriptions aren’t showing up” and I don’t get it. They’re right there, sorted in reverse chronological order. I’ve literally never experienced this problem.
There have been many an issue with YT changing notification settings, or even unsubscribing people. I don’t know if they still do that, but it used to happen to enough people at once that channels would mention checking your notification settings after seeing double digit percentage drops in base viewership.
While this feed issue is manageable if you Pause Your Watch History and Clear Your Watch History before doing so; it does disable a lot of suggestions.
Unfortunately Google and YouTube do not make these options easy to find and they are quick to nag you about turning them back on; and You Must Refuse This and ignore the errors and whines at every prompt for a while before they leave you alone.
So by it’s very nature NewPipe completely defuses this garbage by simply being a much saner front-end than using the “Native” YouTube apps ever were.
You know I think YouTube might start learning their lesson if more and more people began refusing to use their scummy front-end more than strictly necessary. Unfortunately they’re going to go through the usual stages of grief while doing so and they absolutely are currently trying to attack apps like GrayJay and NewPipe with spurious lawsuits.
So instead; maybe those of you who “Pay” for YouTube Premium should simply cancel your service and start donating that amount to projects like NewPipe, when that is possible. (Yes I know Team NewPipe will not accept donations for legal reasons, but similar projects do exist, like FreeTube or Invidious, that can and do accept donations to cover costs for server hosted things in their developments.)
I wouldn’t be renewing my subscription once it expires. I mainly used YouTube Music from it but Google still hasn’t managed feature parity with either Spotify or with it’s previous incarnation Google Play Music either. I mean, they shoved the cast button that few people use replacing the next button used to skip to other track.
Play Music had a much cleaner interface on both desktop and mobile.
I am still angry at google for killing Play Music. You could upload your own files, back in the day. It was a genuinely awesome and unique product that I used every single day.
The algorithm issue is why I allways curate my youtube watch history, if I don’t, my recommendations would quickly be messed up after watching videos outside of my normal interests.
I don’t think recommendations being messed up by the algorithm is the real issue with YouTube (or any big tech social media platform). It’s the fact that the algorithm is so good at predicting what you want to watch before you even think about watching it, that you slowly become pushed into an echo-chamber where your entire online space is inhabited only by people who agree with you, issues that you think are relevant, etc. It’s the entire concept of algorithm-based recommendations that is messed up and it’s damaging society.
Oh most deffinately, I tend to match non political stuff, but I have no idea if/how I am being affected.
The main issue with the algorithm is that it values engagement over everythibg else, so it will allway bring more extreme view points as they have more engagibg videos.
Yes, the feed can be janky for some though I liked the new video recommendations it sometimes gave. It reminded me of another gripe on their mobile app. When you go to the Subscriptions page, it shows polls, comments and videos all in a bunch instead of just the latter by default. This behaviour can be toggled off but seems to revert back every few days in my case.
Either way, subscriptions page should be for videos only, not other forms of data.
YouTube is unwatchable for me without sponsorblock so I’ve liked the newpipe forks that include. And on desktop I love freetube because it goes further and lets me block channels.
Yes, I installed Sponserblock too on Desktop. Also, had to disable Shorts via uBlock Filters.
Not the person you asked, but you can find ready made block lists for YouTube Shorts. For example: https://github.com/gijsdev/ublock-hide-yt-shorts
I pay also, and use revanced. I watch YouTube more than any other service, and want to support some of the creators I like.
I would feel a lot less self hatred for paying google if they released a YouTube ‘Lite’ app that dropped everything related to shorts. Paying users should be able to use the app however they want, without having extra features rammed down their throats.
My god I wish there was an option to just not show shorts. Why that’s so difficult is beyond me.
Because it’s the new trend to be like tiktok.
I enjoy the ones I get recommended. Usually from channels I am already subscribed to anyway.
Very rarely get a random one (I don’t (doom) scroll the feed) and YT seemded to get, that I am not someone to click on it.
I never open them, I come to YouTube for long form essay content not 5 seconds of gratification.
I see my wife for that
Save the money you spend on Premium, put it towards direct donations instead. Better for Youtubers, better for community-built FOSS alternatives.
YouTube Premium costs as much for just two months as Nebula does for an entire year (if you sign up through a creator’s code—US prices. Australian prices it’s about 2.6 months) Highly recommend, probably the best bang for your buck option.
Dropout is quite a bit more expensive than Nebula, and narrower in range of content (basically comedy panel shows, sketch comedy, and D&D), but it’s still only 5.4 months’ worth of YouTube Premium in cost (for your second & subsequent year—4.3 months for the first year discount), and you’re directly supporting the creators. Still a very good deal.
If you’ve got both of those, that’s 8 months of YouTube Premium’s cost, leaving 4 months worth that can be spent directly on individual creators’ Patreons, Kofis, one-off donations, or on their merch.
How much exclusive content is there on Nebula? I was always under the assumption that it’s pricing would be higher than YouTube’s. If they have done localized pricing, maybe that might be better than giving stuff to Google once my YouTube subscription expires.
Also, off topic, but some companies just convert dollar values to local currencies. I think a year of Reddit Premium in my country is as expensive as YouTube, Google Play Pass and Netflix COMBINED.
Nebula is US$50 per year if you go straight to the website, but $30 per year if you click through any one of the creators’ own referal URLs. No region-specific pricing as far as I know (but YouTube does have region-specific pricing, which is slightly cheaper in Australia than America using current currency exchange rates, which is why Nebula is more expensive here than in America, in YT-months).
The vast majority of Nebula content is available on YouTube, albeit with sponsors/ad reads removed, and sometimes a week or so early.
There’s a fair amount of Nebula “Plus” content. Extra or supplementary material to videos that are otherwise available on YouTube, or an extra video in a series where most of the series is on YouTube but this episode is not.
There are also Nebula Originals, where Nebula themselves helped fund the project and the video is exclusive to Nebula. There are quite a few of these, but they’re less common than the other categories.
The entire library is available to browse for free without an account if you go to their website and hit Explore so you can see for yourself. Look for the Nebula logo star for Originals, the + sign for Plus content, and the lightning bolt for Nebula First. You can also use the filters near the top to see only those, if you want. To give a rough sense of the relative abundance, my tablet displays up to 9 thumbnails per screen, and when sorting by most recent, the oldest I see without scrolling is 20 March for Originals, 30 April for Plus, just 9 May for First, and when unfiltered it only goes as far back as 19 hours ago, including 2 Nebula First videos.
some companies just convert dollar values to local currencies
This is what Dropout does I think. It displayed some weird numbers like $91.74, but didn’t actually say anywhere that this was AUD until I read the fine print, so I almost started out comparing it to the US YT price. I assume the US price is a more round number.
Nebula just displays US prices and charges US prices regardless, I think. It’s been a while since I actually looked at how they do it.
I actually checked Nebula and it’s the opposite of cheap in my country. It is THRICE as expensive as YouTube Premium on a yearly basis. I mean, even Netflix is cheaper than Nebula here, it’s so expensive.
I don’t think they have done localized pricing and have just converted dollar values to local currency. I doubt they even care if anyone signs up from India for their service.
