Anyone who’s been using privacy-respecting frontends for some time will recognise Piped. A YouTube frontend with no ads, integrated SponsorBlock, return dislikes, and a customisable UI.
Piped also allows you to subscribe to as many channels as you want without ever logging into a Google account. You can export your subs list from YouTube and import them to Piped seamlessly.
If you’ve never heard of it, give it a glance at https://piped.video. For more instances, check here.
can definitely recommend this, but just a head’s up - Google has a habit of hitting the main instance with rate limiting, which causes videos to not load until it gets fixed. but thankfully Piped has multiple instances, so if the main one is down, you can keep watching.
Excellent timing! With the rumblings of YT attacking anti-ad users and me using my new iPad Pro for watching stuff on the go, I’ve just started looking into side-loading.
Looks like I’ll be going with an app that utilizes this fw. Good share!
I use it for about a year new. There are a few hiccups now and then, but you can just switch instance. That’s why I recommend using Libredirect with it. If you have trouble with an instance just ping the instances in Libredirect and chose a new one. Backup your preferences from the old instance and import it to the new. Your settings and subscriptions are available again.
is there any way for me to sign into my youtube account by way of piped so I can get my sub feed and stuff?
Just downloaded it, thank you!
deleted by creator
Hello there, I’m the author of Piped and would love to answer any questions you may have! 👋
Is this a similar concept to NewPipe?
Yep, Piped uses the NewPipeExtractor to load videos, just like NewPipe. However, Piped runs it server side, and NewPipe runs it client side. YouTube likes to rate limit the big instances too, so all you have to do is use a smaller one like il.ax or piped.adminforge.de.
What’s the advantage of running this server side?
That youtube don’t know YOU scrape their website. in fact, they don’t even know you’re watching a video.
However, YouTube rate limits big Piped instances, so it’s better to use NewPipe or a small instance.
How does it compare to invidious? Worth switching?
Inb4 YouTube starts charging for API access… too soon? :(
I’m sure they’re watching the reddit situation very closely.
Piped (and similar projects like NewPipe, Invidious, and FreeTube) scrape YouTube instead of using an API; so just like Nitter, they won’t be affected by a paid API.
Ironically Nitter stopped working lately, since Twitter started requiring users to be logged in to read anything.
Invidious does use a YouTube API. FreeTube uses Invidious, so probably same story there. I don’t know about the others.
I recently had a back and forth with one of invidious’s developers. Judge for yourself.
Initial player response is not valid. Doesn’t inspire confidence that it is immediately broken.
main instance is being rate limited - basically Google likes to go ‘fuck you’ and kill the main instance for a few days. just switch to a smaller instance and you’ll be good
eh, i don’t think it’s fair to discount a youtube frontend for having a bug, especially not a frontend as new as this one. projects at this early a stage always have issues, & youtube frontends have to deal with the added bonus of google randomly rate-limiting & consistently trying to break them. youtube frontends are always going to have issues & need constant updates by nature, there’s not much any of them can do about it
How is it different from NewPipe?
It uses NewPipe in the backend. Your requests will be proxied through the Piped server.
SmartTube for Google/Android TVs! So amazing. AdBlock and sponsorblock built in.
How’s the UI? I remember using it over a year ago and it felt really crusty compared to the Chromecast YouTube app
Much better than before, I’d imagine. I haven’t used it for that long but I find it really smooth and nice to use, I haven’t had any issues, really.
Hell yeah most of my consumption is on my tv so I’ll try again
Piped js no longer working since YT started blocking Ad-blockers.
What do you mean exactly? I just tried it and it and Piped seems to work just fine.
