YouTube Enhancement Megathread: Tools and Extensions for All Devices

https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTube

For Android tv

uYou+ is no longer maintained, though uYou+ Extra is.

Very nice. Might be worth adding to the wiki megathread

CastSponsorSkip - SponsorBlock for Google Cast devices. Runs on your local network and skips sponsored sections using the SponsorBlock api.

YouTube changes their detection scripts twice a day

This turns out to be the reason I kept getting the notification despite all my efforts to evade it. You just need to keep updating it as explained there. Also learned, that I don't need to update every list, just the quick fixes part.

For Roku, there's the Invidious frontend Playlet.

For android, libretube

https://github.com/Libre-tube/LibreTube

I'd recommend the Vinegar Safari plugin on iOS. It replaces the YT video player with a basic HTML video player (in Safari), which prevents ads.

I have some mixed feelings about doing this for some creators. Blocking sponsors and all the ads from some creators takes more from creators than it does from Google, right? Isn't it the potential monetization that drives many YouTubers to keep creating content? And won't some give up with no financial support?

Are some of you guys blocking all the ads but subscribing to their Patreon?

https://github.com/dmunozv04/iSponsorBlockTV

Docker container that you run on a computer on your network, such as an RPi, and add your YouTube playing TVs and Chromecasts and consoles and such. It watches what you're playing and provides sponsorblock skipping for them automatically

If you're using Linux and have podman v4.4 or higher installed, you can use this container file to load it as a systemd service:

[Unit]
Description="Sponsorblock for networked youtube clients"
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target default.target

[Service]
Restart=always
TimeoutStartSec=900

[Container]
Image=ghcr.io/dmunozv04/isponsorblocktv:latest
Volume=/etc/containers/config/sponsorblock:/app/data

You'll need to generate the config file by hand the first time, follow the instructions in the GitHub wiki above

I use the iOS app Yattee to stream content from invidious instances and it works great

For anyone that has an LG smart tv: https://github.com/webosbrew/dev-manager-desktop

You can install an ad free yt app with this tool. Apparently there are issues where you need to re-enable dev mode every 24 hours, but I have not had any issues.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned Vinegar on the iOS AppStore.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/

BlockTube

By now it allows to block (remove) other things: Auto-generated playlists, Explore page, Shorts, Movies and a few other things.

I mostly use it to block content about stuff I don't want to get spoiled on. It supports regex so it's fairly easy for me to very rarely see anything that would diminish my experience from a specific piece of media (assuming I don't forget to do it in the first place...).

Another one like DeArrow that I use is Clickbait remover for youtube.

iOS also has Vinegar, an extension for Safari that is on the App Store. It will also work with Safari on M1/m2 Macs.

Just want to add that Enhancer for YouTube is also available for Firefox.

This is probably a no.... But does anyone have any solution for using the YouTube on roku TVs with some of these YouTube enhancements in place?

Don't forget Yattee!

There's also TubeArchivist which is sort of like a self hosted YouTube. It can pull videos automatically from channels you subscribe to and download them through yt-dlp and has some organisational capabilities too

For me the best option on Android is LibreTube with a nice-working piped instance!

Seems like LibreTube should be in the Android category.

If you had to pick one of those iOS clients, which would you pick?

Worth pointing out that the current version of Return YouTube Dislike doesn't seem to be working while you're logged in. I'm sure it will be fixed soon.

LibreTube, a Piped client, should be added to the Android section. Allows logging into your Piped account to sync your subs, includes SponsorBlock/DeArrow/RYD, and has one of the best interfaces I've seen of any YouTube app (including the official one).

Is DeArrow still locked behind a license key? I know it was fairly simple to share them around but it did seem to greatly hinder the extension's use, compared to their SponsorBlock project.

This thread is a gold mine - thanks for putting all that together!

BlockTube has become as essential to my YouTube experience as uBlock, surprisingly flexible for an extension as new as it is.

Invidious is pretty good, thanks!

So like nobody likes Ymusic? That has become my default YouTube viewer. Love that app they don't screw you on data usage and you don't get buffering because you can choose the resolution it plays at