NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client • Hacker News Board

Re: NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client

#571

Post by e12e » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 8:03 PM UTC

causality0 wrote: post #165

NullPrefix wrote: post #136

The app is great, but wasn't google recently banning user accounts for it? Youtube account and google account is same thing, so this app is useful only for othwerwise ungoogled users

Like all third-party youtube apps and downloaders, you should use a dummy account that's subscribed to all the same channels as your real one.

How about playlists and history, though? Personally I don't use subscriptions, and have no use for them.

I suppose and app like this could provide a third party (self host able api) account service - recording history and managing/syncing playlists? Maybe with an option to merge in entries from Google account playlists from time to time?

Playlists are nice not just for playing/listening, but also downloading for offline use/backup/archive.

Ed: i see that it has local history and playlists, with option to export data - but apparently no option to load data (whether from youtube/Google or an earlier export).

Re: NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client

#572

Post by hajimemash » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 8:33 PM UTC

JulianWasTaken wrote: post #330

dotBen wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I support the sentiment, you know that's not how all advertising works? CPM ads mean the publisher makes money because you saw the ad, regardless of whether you clicked on it (CPC). Even if you never click an ad or buy anything from an ad, you are still helping the publisher make money.

(I work in advertising, so yes I know how it works :) The hypothetical being discussed is "it's better to not use the service at all than to use it and block an ad". In this scenario, which impression would have been shown that now is not? Either way, no money is made by the content creator. The only way that person would make money is the third scenario which it seems you're talking about, whereby I use the service…

As a coder, this unbalanced smily-parenthesis is triggering my syntax error radar aggressively :)

Re: NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client

#573

Post by skinkestek » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 9:27 PM UTC

realmod wrote: post #266

skinkestek wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be in your camp but after Google had only showed a number of us irrelevant ads for years after years I decided it didn't matter: I don't want to date hot Russian/Taiwanese/Ukrainian/Thai women, I'm not interested in dating elderly women near me - and I'm not interested in dating guys either. Nothing against any of those persons, but I'm happily married after all so even the idea of browsing those sites is c…

Google not displaying relevant ads do NOT in any way make it less wrong. In your case, there are 2 'ethical' options: use premium or avoid the service. Btw I also use adblock so I am a part of the problem.

It is my rendering device.

For a number of years I allowed them to run JS on my device and download ads from other servers to my device.

I have now instructed my rendering device to not do that. Even as a devout christian that doesn't feel unethical.

I'm free to try to avoid the ads, they are free (within limits) to get me to view ads.

A pro tip in that regard would be to make the ads relevant and unobtrusive.

A good first step here would be to include them statically on the server side and make sure they don't contain any moving or noisy elements.

Another good idea would be to select ads not solely on what company they can fleece for most money by showing me irrelevant ads but also factor in if the ad is in any way relevant.

Re: NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client

#574

Post by betamaxthetape » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 9:37 PM UTC

Another major advantage (for me) of NewPipe over any official app is that it supports other services (such as SoundCloud).

I find the ability to seamlessly switch between services, and create playlists containing both YouTube videos and SoundCloud audio, to be a complete game-changer.

I doubt I could easily go back to the official YouTube app now.

Re: NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client

#575

Post by endemic » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 10:09 PM UTC

ravenstine wrote: post #532

drewg123 wrote: post #18

This is the best youtube client, bar none. It keeps local history and "subscriptions" without requiring you to log in to google. I use it on an Amazon Fire Tablet. There seems to be no iOS equivalent, which is one of the things preventing me from upgrading to an iPad. Has anybody used it recently on AndroidTV / FireTV? I've tried it several times in the past, and its always been wonky there. I use SmartYouTubeTV ( ht…

I've been using NewPipe for years, and find it to be an example of how an app should be. Besides that it doesn't force you to log in to keep things like subscriptions, one of the best things about it is that it's very snappy, whereas the YouTube app is like every other Google app in that it's slow and not very responsive. Being able to play audio in the background is the killer feature for me.

When I broke my Android and had to use an old iPhone, the background audio feature in NewPipe was probably what I missed the most.

Re: NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client

#576

Post by mda » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 10:10 PM UTC

skinkestek wrote: post #181

izacus wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that Google charges subscription for this features, it's not only against ToS, but also unethical IMO. It's one thing to hate a company and refuse to use their products and a whole nother thing to promote products that sidestep features the service asks money for.

I used to be in your camp but after Google had only showed a number of us irrelevant ads for years after years I decided it didn't matter: I don't want to date hot Russian/Taiwanese/Ukrainian/Thai women, I'm not interested in dating elderly women near me - and I'm not interested in dating guys either. Nothing against any of those persons, but I'm happily married after all so even the idea of browsing those sites is c…

A weird justification, "Oh they show me irrelevant ads" Just say that you don't care. Or do the right thing and either pay, don't watch or use it with ads.

Re: NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client

#577

Post by deadmutex » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 10:40 PM UTC

reificator wrote: post #410

deadmutex wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In any case, to use YouTube Premium you have to login, and therefore have all your viewings tracked. My understanding is that you can pause watch history, see link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tzY79vqPrk

I would assume that stops you from getting any value out of your history, but does not significantly hamper Google's tracking.

Do you have any evidence that this is so? Seems like a very odd assumption to make.

Re: NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client

#578

Post by grawprog » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 10:41 PM UTC

StencilofLife wrote: post #504

grawprog wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

F-droid sometimes lags a couple days behind the latest updates. Usually the parsing errors are fixed within a day or two and made available on the official site before f-droid. As far as I know, those are usually caused by updates to youtube itself.

It's because F-droid builds these every week instead of as soon as it is out.

Yeah honestly as far as app repositories go, f-droid's usually pretty good at keeping things up to date. I use it for most apps I can get off there, newpipe's about the only one I bother grabbing straight from the site because I get impatient.

Re: NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client

#579

Post by rapnie » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 10:59 PM UTC

deadmutex wrote: post #577

reificator wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would assume that stops you from getting any value out of your history, but does not significantly hamper Google's tracking.

Do you have any evidence that this is so? Seems like a very odd assumption to make.

Who knows what Google does with the data? Maybe they still keep the history, but attached to an 'anonymous' ID, or they don't keep history but first analyse and infer new data and store that with your profile. Or they provide the data to a 3rd-party instead. Or ...

Re: NewPipe – ad-free, open-source Android YouTube client

#580

Post by themacguffinman » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 11:28 PM UTC

627467 wrote: post #542

themacguffinman wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I think of the freedom to challenge contemporary restaurant business models too.. you know, food on my terms . Restaurants are welcome not to serve me their food if I don't accept their bill, but I won't tell them upfront just like you. Let's not pretend this is about high-minded freedom; like everyone else in a free market, you're free to not consume the fruits of labor from content creators and YouTube. A…

> Restaurants are welcome not to serve me their food if I don't accept their bill, but I won't tell them upfront just like you. What's the restaurant equivalent to me having to turn on JavaScript or disable my ad blocker? > thought it was honest and interesting to raise the issue of self-interested piracy for low-income users. Well, I touched you on that point (inequality). But it seems that I failed to touch you on…

Creators have the right to set terms on the fruits of their labor. Your rights end where their rights begin. A restaurant's terms is their fee, YouTube and creators' terms are ads or Premium.

I don't know why some people think they can just make up the right to do whatever they want with other people's work. You can do what you want on your computer, but not with their stuff. Easy solution: don't use YouTube, but apparently you think you're entitled to it.