Comment on Funny how android used to be what we now call FOSS
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day agoI already sometimes access YT through Firefox for Android, mainly for playing music in the background. Maybe I’ll change that at some point, but currently I still normally use the official YouTube app for watching videos.
Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 1 day ago
YouTube ReVanced is the official YouTube app, just with some code patches applied. They avoid being taken down by only releasing a patcher app and list of patches. You install the patcher app, a specific version of YouTube (which can be done within said app), select from a looong list of patches (everything from removing ads to integrating SponsorBlock and DeArrow [which changes clickbait titles and thumbnails to something neutral] to restoring the video quality menu to hiding shorts and all those react buttons under vids to blocking videos based on keywords), and the app creates a custom YouTube APK with all those patches applied.
It’s impossible to go back to stock after using ReVanced. I have over fifty patches applied and without them the app is a web of dark patterns and enshittification. With them I have a simple app with a few buttons per page (just the ones I use) that opens directly to a feed of just the videos I want to watch.
The downside is it’s a pain to setup without root since YouTube is usually a system app, but with root you can even mount ReVanced over the base app so it’s completely undetectable by the system (though there’s always a chance Google will add something within the app to catch users that the RV team might not catch due to YouTube’s infamously convoluted design and server-side A/B testing).
cepelinas@sopuli.xyz 10 hours ago
For unrooted you only have to.install revanced microg once and login and the rest is the same as rooted basically just that it installs as an another app.
Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
That’s good to hear. I haven’t looked into MicroG in several years since I always root my phone, but in the past I’d always heard it was a nightmare to install alongside Google Play Services and required flashing a zip in recovery mode or using something like the xposed framework that opened up gaping security holes in your system. Glad it’s more user-friendly these days - anything that makes degoogling easier gets my support.