this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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Technology

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Inb4 YouTube starts charging for API access… too soon? :(

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Ironically Nitter stopped working lately, since Twitter started requiring users to be logged in to read anything.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'm sure they're watching the reddit situation very closely.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

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!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

How does it compare to invidious? Worth switching?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is this a similar concept to NewPipe?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Doesn't this make NewPipe better in that instance? If it's client side you aren't going to be rate limited.

There is also a fork of NewPipe that integrates SponsorBlock (I don't know if Piped has that).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's the advantage of running this server side?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That youtube don't know YOU scrape their website. in fact, they don't even know you're watching a video.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

However, YouTube rate limits big Piped instances, so it's better to use NewPipe or a small instance.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

A couple days ago I found a service called Farside, apparently you can replace youtube.com with farside.link/piped to redirect to a random smaller Piped instance. It works pretty well for me, although sometimes I just use il.ax because I'm just lazy and don't want to type that much.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Having a lot of troubles with viewing content in any of the instances. Unfortunate since things are looking a lil’ bleak on YouTube as a whole.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

SmartTube for Google/Android TVs! So amazing. AdBlock and sponsorblock built in.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

How's the UI? I remember using it over a year ago and it felt really crusty compared to the Chromecast YouTube app

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Do any of these frontends have a "watch later" function? What I really need is the "remove watched" button, since its just a playlist.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You can export your Youtube subscription into a csv file that can be imported into Piped. If you enable cookies you don't even need to create an account and can still have a personal feed. That's the main reason for me to use it above Invidious

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Hello there, I'm the author of Piped and would love to answer any questions you may have! 👋

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Just downloaded it, thank you!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Initial player response is not valid. Doesn’t inspire confidence that it is immediately broken.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How is it different from NewPipe?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It uses NewPipe in the backend. Your requests will be proxied through the Piped server.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Piped js no longer working since YT started blocking Ad-blockers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

What do you mean exactly? I just tried it and it and Piped seems to work just fine.