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ReVanced

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Re: ReVanced

#51
post #5

Apparently Vanced was a patched YouTube app for Android, removing ads, adding a dark theme and YouTube Premium features (probably more ?). It was discontinued two weeks ago: https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/13/22975890/youtube-vanced-a...

> Apparently Vanced was a patched YouTube app

This is the part I missed in the original conversations.

If you redistribute a modified version of a company’s app, it’s going to be taken down. You can’t distribute another company’s work as your own.

The difference here appears to be that it’s a patcher, so they’re not distributing the proprietary app. Theoretically more robust against takedowns, but it also significantly limits the audience of who can go through all of the steps to do it.

I expect the real outcome is going to be a game of whack-a-mole as random people try to patch and distribute the app under different names. This isn’t actually a great situation because it sets an expectation among users that the app will always be changing names and distributors. Hackers love these situations because the door is now wide open for them to insert malicious code into a version and distribute it as the latest Revanced. Not good.

Re: ReVanced

#52
post #7

Youtube's frequency of ads has become so extreme that I've just yesterday opted to pay 11€/month for YT Premium. I had tried before disabling them with a Pihole or by blocking domains. It didn't work. Also, on a Samsung TV, you can't really install another front end.

I've never said no to anything more in my life than YouTube Premium.

Re: ReVanced

#53
post #18
post #7

Youtube's frequency of ads has become so extreme that I've just yesterday opted to pay 11€/month for YT Premium. I had tried before disabling them with a Pihole or by blocking domains. It didn't work. Also, on a Samsung TV, you can't really install another front end.

I'm in the same boat. On desktop it's pretty easy to work around ads thanks to uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock. But on an Android TV it's becoming unbearable. It's like Youtube has come to torture and extortion to get our money so we can get a little bit of peace of mind.

Try smarttube

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30802571

Re: ReVanced

#54
post #7

Youtube's frequency of ads has become so extreme that I've just yesterday opted to pay 11€/month for YT Premium. I had tried before disabling them with a Pihole or by blocking domains. It didn't work. Also, on a Samsung TV, you can't really install another front end.

With TVs it is especially important to look at the _software_ it comes with. If it is some locked-down piece which requires the blessing of the manufacturer to install anything on it, then I would stay away from such TVs. It seems to me that Android TVs offer at least some degree of customization because it is possible to install apps there. But the value you get from them depends on whether you can get the root acce…

The answer is to grab a Pi or similar tiny box and treat the TV as a dumb monitor.

This works very well.

Re: ReVanced

#55
post #39
post #5

Apparently Vanced was a patched YouTube app for Android, removing ads, adding a dark theme and YouTube Premium features (probably more ?). It was discontinued two weeks ago: https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/13/22975890/youtube-vanced-a...

best part of vanced was the ability to background youtube so you can listen to music with the screen being locked

New pipe will do that too. Or just watching the video in the phone browser.

Re: ReVanced

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With TVs it is especially important to look at the _software_ it comes with. If it is some locked-down piece which requires the blessing of the manufacturer to install anything on it, then I would stay away from such TVs. It seems to me that Android TVs offer at least some degree of customization because it is possible to install apps there. But the value you get from them depends on whether you can get the root acce…

Android has smarttube app which is even better (imho) compared to official youtube app, even if you pay for adfree For starters, it supports sponsorblock which is even more adblocking. Secondly i think ux is miles better You dont need root but you need to manually download and install it

That's really nice, I need to save this for when I buy an android tv

Re: ReVanced

#57
post #5

Apparently Vanced was a patched YouTube app for Android, removing ads, adding a dark theme and YouTube Premium features (probably more ?). It was discontinued two weeks ago: https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/13/22975890/youtube-vanced-a...

It also restored the dislike button and added support for sponsorblock (which can automatically skip sponsor segments, as well as intros, outros, "like and subscribe" reminders, non-music sections of music videos, and other fluff.)

The name comes from it being an "advanced" YouTube app, only without any "ad"s ;)

Oh, and you could disable the comments section!

All-in-all, it just made YouTube a much better experience.

Re: ReVanced

#58
post #28

Quoted post unavailable.

You make it sound like either/or but Vanced was never just about getting rid of ads. I pay for YouTube Premium but Vanced was still appealing because it removes other things I don't want, like posts in my home feed, Shorts, YouTube Originals and sponsored segments of videos. Vanced is about giving the user what the user wants, instead of what YouTube wants the user to want.

Lets be honest here. The majority of Vanced users used the app to circumvent ads.

Re: ReVanced

#59

Is this somehow based on the original Vanced app (which wasn't open source afaik?) or are they essentially beginning from scratch?

At first is different because to avoid the same issue as Vanced, it will not ship you patched version of YouTube App but it will ship a patcher.

That mean you'll must have installed YouTube because it will be companion or patch (I'm not sure if it will patch the YouTube app or be a service next to YouTube to apply Vanced feature at runtime)

Re: ReVanced

#60

Looks like their patches repo is public - I wonder if that'll lead the the adblocking technique being patched out quickly by Google? Either way happy to see this app revived, even as a premium subscriber - it provides functionality that makes YouTube much nicer to use

i'm confident Google can't patch this without breaking their own app
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