I’m using a stock Samsung Galaxy 8 phone right now (with Android 10) and I disabled the YouTube app. I was basically sick of its s***. Since then, I never sign in to the app/site, and so may aspects of using the site are much better now.

  • Everything is faster, since they don’t know me / aren’t tracking as much.
  • I always open YT in Firefox Focus, which doesn’t ever keep cookies or history each time I close it, so there’s no history for YT to mine each time I visit again.
  • I’m pretty sure I see fewer ads since I don’t have a deep history for YT to mine / target.
  • More random suggestions from YT means I am mostly broken out of the bubble caused by their tracking. I find new, interesting music, for instance, now, from the suggestions.
  • Hitting “back” in the browser means I go back wherever I was before, not to the YT home page (like the app used to do to me)

I still visit the site often, and appreciate all the good music and channels I watch, but now it’s overall a much more positive experience, more like YT was a few years ago versus the horrible mess it’s become recently.

I’d still appreciate any other tips anyone has for making YT visits even more enjoyable.

  • Pons_Aelius
    8•9 months ago

    I’m pretty sure I see fewer ads since I don’t have a deep history for YT to mine / target.

    I used normal FF with ublock. I never see ads at all. Can you add extensions to Firefox Focus?

    • Sinnerman
      3•9 months ago

      normal FF with ublock

      This is the way (assuming you mean Ublock Origin, which I understand is superior to just-plain Ublock.) I also use SponsorBlock.

        • Sinnerman
          1•9 months ago

          You can get the sponsorblock exension on standard android firefox now, if that’s what you’re asking.

      • Pons_Aelius
        1•9 months ago

        I do mean Ublock Origin, just a bit lazy in typing.

        I have sponsor block on the pc and do need to add it to mobile. (that lazyness kicking in again as it has only been a few weeks that you could add it)

        • @perishthethought@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          2•9 months ago

          Thanks - I just checked, I’m using FF on my desktop, and my android browser, both have uBlock enabled and I still see ads sometimes on youtube.com. I would be interested in changing hat for sure.

          • Pons_Aelius
            2•9 months ago

            Do you have ublock or ublock origin?

            ublock origin is what I use. I also made no changes to the defaults on pc and see no adds on youtube there as well.

              • Pons_Aelius
                2•9 months ago

                Then not sure why you are seeing ads.

                Are the in video sponsor pieces? As sponsor block is quite good at skipping them in most case.

                • AlmightySnoo 🐢🇮🇱🇺🇦English
                  2•9 months ago

                  YouTube is playing cat and mouse with the adblockers, so recently it is sometimes able to show you ads even if you have uBlock Origin enabled. Only reliable way to completely get rid of the ads is to go through a Piped or Invidious instance, or the NewPipe app on Android.

      • Pons_Aelius
        2•9 months ago

        Thanks for checking.

        Then I would suggest that if the OP wants to view youtube on mobile they go with normal FF and ublock.

        It sounds like Firefox Focus just has a few privacy extensions rolled in but still allows adds.

    • @perishthethought@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1•9 months ago

      Unfortunately, no. And AFAIK, we can’t have multiple profiles on the full Firefox web browser. (I would need 2 profiles since for some sites, I still want to keep cookies/history around longer, at least I think that makes sense)