Desktop replacements: FreeTube and Piped. I personally prefer FreeTube; the UI is way better than Piped.
Android: LibreTube (it also works with Piped but I just imported my youtube subscription list instead). There is also NewPipe too!
If you’d rather dump YouTube entirely, there is Odysee and PeerTube. Though for most people they’re just not viable, total replacements. Only you can decide for yourself on that matter.
Enjoy!
Edit: If you want to export your YouTube subs and playlists you’ll have to do Google Takeout; but after that it’s super easy to import/export them from Freetube and Piped whenever ya want.
You might like NewPipe for android. Same flexibility with importing subs, but cleaner and less errors, in my experience, but as long as you’re not using the YT app…
Odysee has an extension that redirects youtube videos to odysee if its available
https://github.com/kodxana/Watch-on-Odysee
Let’s not forget: https://github.com/revanced
Vinegar is a Safari extension for iOS that turns the YouTube media player into a generic iOS one, completely bypassing all of these restrictions. I’m not savvy enough to know if it’s something Google can kill or not, but it’s working great for me right now. Even lets you do PiP and background play.
