Windows Phone gets revenge on YouTube from the grave by helping users bypass its ad-blocker-blocker::Windows Phone to the rescue. A lot of YouTube users want to know how to get around the new annoying YouTube pop-up telling viewers to disable their ad-blocker.

  • jet@hackertalks.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    77
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    This article feels like a large language model generated article.

    TLDR: use a user agent switcher

    Other advice: use Firefox from f Droid, or Mull and install U-Block origin. Use new pipe, or libretube to avoid ads as well

    • icepuncher69@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      I’ve been using revanced on android and have got no problems with youtubes enshitiication anthics, it even has sponsorblock for skipping sponsor in videos, it plays in the background in a small window while i browse lemmy. Only set back might be that its a little hard to install, since you need the patcher, a manager called micro g, and a very specific version of youtube that cannot be get from the playstore and the patcing is a little more complex that it should, but its worth every second of it once its done.

    • nottheengineer@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      11 months ago

      Now there’s grayjay as well, which is a universal media streaming client that respects your privacy.

      • kurcatovium@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 months ago

        Is that android phone only? I mean it would be cool to have it both on desktop and android tv…

          • kurcatovium@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            11 months ago

            Well, I know the solution exists, but it hardly counts as a desktop app. I’d prefer something native (esp. for linux).

            • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              11 months ago

              Yea, nit the easiest/simplest approach. Something native would be better.

              I already run WSA for other stuff, so it’s already there, and Android apps appear just like other apps.

    • PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      I just switched a few days ago from NewPipe to PipePipe. As far as I can tell it functions the same but has more features. I didn’t care for LibreTube at all.

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      11 months ago

      this so much. people are so allergic to firefox for some reason that they are using windows fucking phone.

      • jet@hackertalks.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        The article isn’t about people using a Windows phone, the article is about people setting their user agent to Windows phone, and then Google not trying to do the ad blocking on them.

  • Devouring@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    Try grayjay… it’s an AWESOME new app, open source, and supports all video networks you can think of as plugins.

    It’s available on: grayjay.app

    • Robaque@feddit.it
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      Yes and no. Cool project but I gotta be honest I’m not a big fan of Louis Rossman / FUTO’s "open source but not free " stance.

      • Devouring@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        It’s open source and it’s free. You’re free to pay too if you want to support them. Software costs money.

        What Louis is protecting against in his license is repurposing the app with malware and ads like was repeatedly done with new pipe. Pick your poison.

          • Devouring@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            11 months ago

            I’m not sure I understand your philosophy there or you’re joking. Why is GPL so important? Isn’t the purpose of open-source to validate that no funny business is happening?

            • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              12
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              11 months ago

              That is a purpose of open source.

              First, I was wrong in linking libertarian with GPL, I was thinking of permissive licenses like MIT. GPL is a CopyLeft license, in that it forbids proprietization. MIT is more like, do whatever the hell you want, you just can’t sue me.

              The joke should have been “Libertarian MIT License or DIE!”

              I think MIT is actually a pretty rough license, because it allows someone to come along, take the open source work, add anything, or virtually nothing and then start selling it as their own while keeping any new code secret… when they got it for free. I’m mostly against that, but there are people who believe strongly in that type of license.

              I’m more in favor of GPL like licenses (not prescriptively, but preferentially) because they force the work and its derivatives to be shared by the community, for the work to continue to be open source.

        • Robaque@feddit.it
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          I mean it’s not NewPipe’s fault that Google Play hosts malware.

          Based on what Louis Rossmann said it does seem the more restrictive licence comes from a place of good intentions:

          [11:19] If you download this application and you decide that you want to modify the source code so you can run a build that’s a little bit more amendable to your use case on your phone, we have no problem with that. However if you modify the source code of this application to insert advertisements trackers or malware in it and then try to redistribute our application with maare ads or trackers in it in a deceptive way we will come after you. That is why we have a license that is not as permissive as NewPipes’.

          But idk if that’s also what the license actually means legally-speaking. I’m no expert but section 4 seems pretty dubious:

          FUTO TEMPORARY LICENSE:

          This license grants you the rights, and only the rights, set out below in respect of the source code provided. If you take advantage of these rights, you accept this license. If you do not accept the license, do not access the code.

          Words used in the Terms of Service have the same meaning in this license. Where there is any inconsistency between this license and those Terms of Service, these terms prevail.

          Section 1: Definitions

          • “code” means the source code made available from time, in our sole discretion, for access under this license. Reference to code in this license means the code and any part of it and any derivative of it.
          • “compilation” means to compile the code from ‘source code’ to ‘machine code’.
          • “defect” means a defect, bug, backdoor, security issue or other deficiency in the code.
          • “non-commercial distribution” means distribution of the code or any compilation of the code, or of any other application or program containing the code or any compilation of the code, where such distribution is not intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation.
          • “review” means to access, analyse, test and otherwise review the code as a reference, for the sole purpose of analysing it for defects.
          • “you” means the licensee of rights set out in this license.

          Section 2: Grant of Rights

          1. Subject to the terms of this license, we grant you a non-transferable, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to access and use the code solely for the purposes of review, compilation and non-commercial distribution.
          2. You may provide the code to anyone else and publish excerpts of it for the purposes of review, compilation and non-commercial distribution, provided that when you do so you make any recipient of the code aware of the terms of this license, they must agree to be bound by the terms of this license and you must attribute the code to the provider.
          3. Other than in respect of those parts of the code that were developed by other parties and as specified strictly in accordance with the open source and other licenses under which those parts of the code have been made available, as set out on our website or in those items of code, you are not entitled to use or do anything with the code for any commercial or other purpose, other than review, compilation and non-commercial distribution in accordance with the terms of this license.
          4. Subject to the terms of this license, you must at all times comply with and shall be bound by our Terms of Use, Privacy and Data Policy.

          Section 3: Limitations

          1. This license does not grant you any rights to use the provider’s name, logo, or trademarks and you must not in any way indicate you are authorised to speak on behalf of the provider.
          2. If you issue proceedings in any jurisdiction against the provider because you consider the provider has infringed copyright or any patent right in respect of the code (including any joinder or counterclaim), your license to the code is automatically terminated.
          3. THE CODE IS MADE AVAILABLE “AS-IS” AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED GUARANTEES AS TO FITNESS, MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT OR OTHERWISE. IT IS NOT BEING PROVIDED IN TRADE BUT ON A VOLUNTARY BASIS ON OUR PART AND IS NOT MADE AVAILABLE FOR ANY USE OUTSIDE THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. ANYONE ACCESSING THE CODE MUST ENSURE THEY HAVE THE REQUISITE EXPERTISE TO SECURE THEIR OWN SYSTEM AND DEVICES AND TO ACCESS AND USE THE CODE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. YOU BEAR THE RISK OF ACCESSING AND USING THE CODE. IN PARTICULAR, THE PROVIDER BEARS NO LIABILITY FOR ANY INTERFERENCE WITH OR ADVERSE EFFECT ON YOUR SYSTEM OR DEVICES AS A RESULT OF YOUR ACCESSING AND USING THE CODE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE OR OTHERWISE.

          Section 4: Termination, suspension and variation

          1. We may suspend, terminate or vary the terms of this license and any access to the code at any time, without notice, for any reason or no reason, in respect of any licensee, group of licensees or all licensees including as may be applicable any sub-licensees.

          Section 5: General

          1. This license and its interpretation and operation are governed solely by the local law. You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the local arbitral tribunals as further described in our Terms of Service and you agree not to raise any jurisdictional issue if we need to enforce an arbitral award or judgment in our jurisdiction or another country.
          2. Questions and comments regarding this license are welcomed and should be addressed at https://chat.futo.org/login/.

          Last updated 7 June 2023.

    • Mafflez@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      11 months ago

      Does grayjay update when creators add new videos etc for YouTube? That would be the only reason i DONT use it. Though I don’t see whynit wouldnt.

      • pokemaster787@ani.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        11 months ago

        Pulls directly from YouTube or whatever other source you have a plugin for. So yes it’ll catch automatically when people release new videos.

  • Kodemystic@lemmy.kodemystic.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 months ago

    People could build a sort of mix of youtube and torrent tech, like popcorn or stremio but for short copyright free content. I dont know how to do it.

      • Kodemystic@lemmy.kodemystic.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        No you will still need to host Peertube on your server or VPS etc not even sure why they call it PEERtube because it’s clearly not peer to peer. What I’m talking about is a decentralized peer to peer streaming tool like Stremio (uses torrents) but instead of having movies, we could have you know small/average lenght videos like youtube, and also channels and so on.

        • Babalugats@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          Whatever happened to zeronet? Wasn’t that supposed to do that with many services as well as the whole thing in general?

          I’m guessing it just never got enough users.

          Edit - link https://zeronet.io

          • Kodemystic@lemmy.kodemystic.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            11 months ago

            My bad it actually uses a combnation of hosting and peer to peer. But still its not fully decentralized as I was suggesting. Peertube instances need to be hosted and videos are uploaded to the instance and kept in the instance storage. So its not dully decentralized. Its actually more centralized than not it seems.

      • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        11 months ago

        There’s the rub, isn’t it? Fascists are the ones most actively seeking new platforms to move to after their removal from any other, meaning a lot of the start-up content has to be thoroughly filtered, which takes a lot of effor and resources away from growth.

        • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          11 months ago

          Non-fascists should also just switch away from YouTube. We just need to outnumber the Nazis on alternative platforms like Odysee. BitChute is a hopeless case, but we actually have a chance on Odysee. PeerTube is great though, there are a lot instances that are free of Nazis. It has some other issues though. Sticking with YouTube definitely isn’t an option.

        • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          11 months ago

          Yeah PeerTube is cool, but it has its own set of issues. 1. It’s very expensive for an individual to run an instance 2. The federation mechanism doesn’t really work 3. It’s just too fragmented to replace YouTube due to that fragmentation 4. The search is horrible, also because of the aforementioned issues. I am aware that Sepia Search exists, but it should be built in to PeerTube itself. In general, it’s not very friendly to new users. The entire UI/UX could use some improvements.

  • zerofk@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    11 months ago

    I miss windows phone. The user interface was much cleaner and user friendly than any other phone OS I’ve seen. The only problem was it didn’t have the ecosystem of Android or iOS.

    • Fisch@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      11 months ago

      I’m pretty sure there’s a launcher for Android that mimicks the look and feel of the Windows phone

    • average_member@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      Same here. I hate the standard rows of icons look on most Android launchers. Since i had to part with my Lumia 950 because off failing app support i have been using Square Home as my launcher on my Samsung S8 and now the Pixel 8.

    • DrRatso@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      11 months ago

      By what metric will they lose miserably? They do not care about you if you block their shit. This policy will do 3 things:

      • Make a miniscule amount of people who generate no revenue stop using the platform (basically noone).
      • Make existing adblockers slightly inconvenienced for a little bit (again, google doesnt actually give a shit)
      • Make some of the less tech savy people who block ads either whitelist or premium up (this will happen and is the intended outcome).

      Google only gains from this.

    • zipfelwurster@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      11 months ago

      I doubt it, unfortunately.

      Like many other online services they’ve saturated the market so the only way to increase profits is to extract more money from individual users.

      They are also a quasi-monopoly for a reason - hosting and streaming video is resource-intensive, so I wouldn’t hold my breath for a free alternative that would scale. AFAIK, piped and such are only frontends to youtube which will be killed off by ToS or through technical means.

      Maybe there are free video sites that also host their videos, but as I said, since it quickly becomes very expensive, I don’t see anyone being able to do that for free for long.

      Unfortunately, if anyone is going to “disrupt” youtube, it is going to come from a silicon valley startup and like youtube they will only burn investor capital for a limited time - until they have saturated the market (or failed). Then they’ll have to monetize as well.

      My only hope is something like a torrent approach where everyone who streams also hosts. But since that is technically difficult to perfect, needs a huge user base to succeed while not promising any commercial gain for the initiating party, nobody will throw a ton of money at the problem, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.

      My prediction is that people will either pay for premium or see ads in the mid- to long-term.

      • edric@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 months ago

        I agree that the sheer quantity of resources required to host videos is hard to be able to compete, but there’s also Invidious, which is the fediverse equivalent. As with other fediverse applications, it will largely depend on the people running the instances and how much they storage they can support.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    There are a lot of people frustrated by YouTube’s decision to force a pop-up message for viewers using an ad-blocker as seen in this Reddit post.

    Microsoft itself built an excellent Windows Phone YouTube app for its era, only for it to receive an arbitrary block by Google.

    An X (Twitter) user named @endermanch posted a workaround for bypassing the extremely annoying YouTube pop-up that, for now, doesn’t force you to disable your ad-blocker but that could just be a matter of time.

    At least for right now the method of switching to the Windows Phone user-agent seems to completely remove the YouTube pop-up and allows you to get back to glorious ad-free viewing.

    At the moment it’s just an inconvenience and users can click out of the pop-up to continue watching their favorite creators such as our Windows Central channel.

    However, with the hubris that these content platforms must feel after Netflix was successfully able to stop password sharing and still increase subscriber numbers, I don’t think it will take long for YouTube to completely block users that have an ad-blocker enabled.


    The original article contains 581 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!