Obviously the ideal thing to do would be to stop using them entirely, but if you’re like me and you still have that one subreddit you still need to check on, some of your friends are still there, or you can’t find alternatives to YouTube’s content, then maybe you’re also looking for alternative front-ends that would at least remove the ads and trackers while you look at those sites.
So I was wondering, what alternative apps do you use on Android for those services?
As for me, here’s my small list (all of these are FOSS apps, and with the exception of OldLander, it is better to install them from F-Droid to have the automatic updates):
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Reddit:
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Geddit: native Android client for Reddit that allows you only to browse it anonymously, ie no account is needed;
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RedReader: another native Android client that I discovered recently, and it’s surprisingly good. Its UI is simple and sleek (though you might want to disable “link buttons” in the settings), and you can log in to post and comment;
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OldLander: this one is not really a standalone app. Before RedReader, whenever I needed to comment, I used this userscript together with Tampermonkey on Firefox Android. It basically makes old.reddit.com mobile-friendly. There’s also a Firefox extension version of it which should be even better when Firefox Android supports desktop extensions;
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TwitterX:- Squawker: very good app to look at tweets without needing an account. You basically manage your followings locally on your phone, and you can even group them however you want. Overall it gives you an experience that is very similar to that of an RSS reader. (EDIT 2023-08-17: looks like another Elon change took place and Squawker is no longer able to load tweets, hope the dev can find a way around this 🙁)
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Youtube:
- NewPipe: I probably don’t need to present this one. No account needed.
(enshittification pic from The Hustle)
Google Playstore is also in the shittification phase. The amount of ads and sponsored apps is an eye sore. I use F-Droid as an alternative but most mainstream apps are not there.
If went downhill from the moment Google disallow system-wide ad blockers on Google Play. They still allow 3rd party web browser to include ad blockers as long as the ad blockers only work on that 3rd party web browsers, but how long until they decide to disallow that as well?
YouTube ReVanced
A bit of work to get set up, but pretty damn good once it is.
I can’t remember the last time I saw an ad.
ReVanced is not Vanced, the one that got shut down.
Here’s a good starting guide https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/comments/xlcny9/revanced_manager_guide_for_dummies
Actually, the code for Vanced was never open source, so Revanced isn’t technically a fork. They had to recreate all of Vanced’s features manually.
ReVanced Extended is the shit. Unfortunately the dev seems to have stopped work on it, so might have to switch back to ReVanced at some point.
I see updates from as recent as last week on github?
On that note, if anyone sees this comment or another and wants to try YouTube revanced (or extended) DO NOT JUST BLINDLY GOOGLE AND CLICK THE WEBSITE THAT COMES UP FIRST
I have no idea if that site is owned by a legit dev or not. What I do know is the legit devs directly say on github, where the source code can be reviewed, to NOT download from any other place than github.
Sorry for the PSA but I just don’t want people downloading possibly malicious code from random sites. It’s easy to fall into the blindly search, blindly install hole.
https://github.com/inotia00/ReVanced_Extended/activity
The dev has archived the repo now. I read somewhere he’s irritated with people messaging him after installing from the auspicious sources you mentioned.
SmartTubeNext is an excellent alternative to the default YouTube app, especially on Android TV.
You mean, only on Android TV. They don’t have a phone app, and explicitly stated they are not interested in developing one.
It pairs well with YouTube revanced though. YouTube revanced can cast to SmartTube, so the cast button is functional again.
Which is annoying tbh.
Would be nice if the smart whatever (see I forgot their app name already while typing) team would… team up somehow with the revanced team and they agree on one name, one app. Having two apps for what is essentially the same OS with a different skin is… silly. Like an app for Apple TV and a different app that does essentially the same thing for iOS.
I’m pretty sure they do it to fly under the radar, since mobile clients are far more dominant than smart TV applications.
And there’s also newpipe as an alternative to Vanced (or rather the other way around, I believe newpipe came earlier), and even a fork with sponsorblock integration. I personally vastly prefer them over vanced/revanced.
You can still install it on phones. It’s janky though because it’s designed (obviously) with the expectation of remote navigation, not touch.
So from what I get LibreTube is one layer of privacy above NewPipe in that your phone will be interacting with a Piped instance instead of the Youtube servers directly?
I just use YouTube in Firefox with ublock origin
