With Google making YouTube pretty frustrating to use lately, I’ve been looking into alternatives that respect privacy and still give a decent user experience.

Right now, I’m torn between LibreTube and NewPipe. I know both are solid options, but I’m wondering:

Which one is actually better for privacy?

Which one feels nicer to use day-to-day?

And do either of them offer video recommendations based on watch history, without needing a Google account?

If you’ve tried either (or both), I’d love to hear what you think. I’m just looking for something that lets me watch content without feeling like I’m constantly being tracked or pushed to pay up.

Thanks in advance!

  • kixik@lemmy.ml
    1·
    22 hours ago

    Both Tubular and Libretube support SponsorBlock, in that regard both are cool. I would use Libretube first, and if no piped site works then use Tubular, but Libretube itself allow for using local connection or it could be set to only work that way as NewPipe/Tubular do, so perhaps there wouldn’t be a need for two apps.

    The advantage to start with Libretube is a bit extra privacy by using a 3rd party piped site, so what youtube sees are requests from that site. But piped sites are more identifiable and therefore vulnerable to be rate limited or totally blocked. Though lately youtube has managed to block everything pretty close in time, Freetube, Pipeline, HarmonyMusic (a bit more resilient but also gets blocked), NewTube, Tubular, LibreTube, whatever.

    Google is shortening the periods on which any of these frontends can be used to access youtube. Sadly, as Google offers some profit depending on the visits (more adds) then people seems not to be interested on leaving youtube, :(

    uSo it doesn’t seem to be a frontend which is less prompt to functionality disruptions. Some times it takes less time and some times it takes long, but usually most if not all frontends get affected. In that regard I don’t see much difference, so that’s why I recommended Libretube first and then Tubular as an alternative. Given there’s not frontend supported by Google, in the end it’s almost a matter of taste, with any Piped solution offering a bit extra privacy if used with 3rd party piped sites, and if that site is blocked or rate limited, another one can be chosen, or even it can try on the run to connect locally, or you can actually stop using a 3rd party site at all and only connect locally. BTW, freetube can be set to use an invidio site as well, but there are way less invidio sites up and running that there are piped sites. One can self host, but then the requests to youtube will be yours any ways, though you get local subscription and nice stuff on all frontends.

    I like to have an alternative though in case at least for a little while one mechanism works but the other doesn’t.

    BTW, if interested on music, HarmonyMusic is a bit different frontend that can run on several platforms, gnu+linux, android and so on, and sometimes it keeps working while the other frontends don’t.