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.
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.
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 didn’t know this was a thing and I want to thank you!
You’re welcome.
Bro life changing
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.
You can still upload your own music files (50k is the limit, I think) via web interface.
Huh… so you can. That’s interesting, I did not know that. Thanks.
I just checked Google support site and apparently the limit is 100,000 songs now, which is quite great. The problem is, they don’t tell if and how much, is the music compressed when uploading. Even flac is listed as a supported format but if Google starts storing bit perfect flac without compression, they are gonna give way way more than 15 GB before a power user can hit halfway their song limit.
Functionality is also nonexistent on administrating uploads in YT Music. At least on GPM you could edit basic tags and upload/edit album art. None of that on YTM
Aye; I remember GPM, and before they enshittified it into the ground, it was damn near comparable to Spotify.
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.
Ever thought about firing the algorithm and only watching updates from your subs?
50 people uploading weekly at ~10 minutes per video is 8 hours’ watch time per week. Compare with your actual time spent watching YT…
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, exactly. Negative emotions have been shown to drive more engagement in users, so the algorithms are designed to highlight conflict and increasingly extreme viewpoints. For younger viewers, the algorithm favours addictive content to ensure they stay glued to the screen.
My bookmark goes directly to the subscription page. I never see the home page algorithm
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.