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Re:ReVanced by Aissen on Friday March 25, 2022 @09:55AM (#30802200)
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...

Re:ReVanced by nfriedly on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:35AM (#30802655)
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 by adamsmith143 on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:42AM (#30802736)
>It also restored the dislike button

As a useless button to click? I would assume youtube removed the actual functionality in the backend so what's the point of the button?

Re:ReVanced by judge2020 on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:50AM (#30802844)
It uses an alternative backend where videos pre-removal had their dislike counters archived, and anything post-removal uses dislike data from users with the extension to crowdsource a likely dislike counter.

(in theory, if 5% of viewers of a video are people that have the extension, and only 10% of those viewers hit the dislike button, chances are that's a good sample size to assume that this video should have a 10% dislike ratio, but in practice it's probably a bit more complicated/weighted)

[dead]
Re:ReVanced by Nadya on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:11AM (#30803117)
If the signal you are picking up from downvotes is that the channel must be hated in some way you should watch fewer outrage-bait/drama channels and more learning/tutorial channels. Some tutorial videos are made so confusingly and poorly, or worse teach incorrect information altogether, that the only signal for people to know "This video is absolute bollocks and you shouldn't waste your time watching it" is when he gets downvote bombed by anyone watching it. It's a single to then check the comments section where you'll probably see some comment explaining all the problems/incorrect parts of the video with more likes than the video itself has often with a recommendation to a better video on the topic.

Sure - channels absolutely used to be downvote bombed because people were mad at the content creator for whatever reason they may have had. But for a good section of videos the downvotes only spoke about the quality of the video itself and nothing about the content creator.

Re:ReVanced by pbhjpbhj on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:02AM (#30803005)
"Dislike" doesn't mean hate, personally I've only downvoted YouTube videos when they were badly made, or badly presented to the extent that almost any other video on the topic would be better.

It's not about hate, it's a signal that the video is probably going to be a waste of time for the watcher.

[dead]
Re:ReVanced by breakfastduck on Friday March 25, 2022 @12:50PM (#30804442)
Absolute nonsense. You've obviously never used Youtube for anything educational if you can't see the value of the dislike button.

This comment is loaded with 'well meaning virtue' but ultimately it does more harm than good. You're taking it away because some celebrity you like got sad because their video got disliked? Bloody hell.

Re:ReVanced by alluro2 on Friday March 25, 2022 @12:41PM (#30804306)
Making better tools that will detect and manage downvote bombing and hate should be fairly simple if Youtube could be bothered by any of it.

Removing the absolutely needed and valid functionality that is normally used to signal the quality of the content, and save viewers' time, for all users and all cases, should not be the justified sacrifice, just in order to mitigate one bad way to use it.

Re:ReVanced by MMS21 on Friday March 25, 2022 @01:11PM (#30804722)
If downvotes are causing someone that much of a problem just stop uploading content.
Re:ReVanced by elondaits on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:27AM (#30803318)
There are a lot of clickbait and fraud videos on YouTube. Fake trailers for upcoming movies, videos that pretend to be e.g. a SNL sketch but are just a collage of pictures with a synthesized voiceover, gaming streamers pretending there’s a live event “just about to start” on games like Fortnite.

There’s also disturbing “children’s videos” made by AIs, and fake lifehack or cooking videos that promise things like “if you microwave popcorn with M&Ms you get chocolate covered popcorn”, some of which show dangerous things that have resulted in accidents (e.g. people getting burnt with exploding eggs and the like).

Re:ReVanced by vageli on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:02AM (#30803003)
> What a complicated process, all just to express your hatred.

Since when is a downvote equivalent to hate?

Re:ReVanced by TheRealSteel on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:06AM (#30803046)
You've never downvoted anything on any website ever?
Re:ReVanced by wolpoli on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:27AM (#30803314)
I would love to be able to downvote step-by-step tutorials with obviously non-working steps or missing information.
Re:ReVanced by lfkdev on Friday March 25, 2022 @12:16PM (#30803975)
You clearly never used youtube much
Re:ReVanced by nfriedly on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:47AM (#30802800)
I think it used an alternate backend, possibly https://returnyoutubedislike.com/
Re:ReVanced by aembleton on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:31AM (#30803369)
Yes, it is that one.
Re:ReVanced by RandallBrown on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:59AM (#30803758)
YouTube still has a dislike button. They just don't show you the number of dislikes anymore.
Re:ReVanced by TheRealSteel on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:05AM (#30803029)
Oh wow, I just assumed it was made by a guy called Vance.
Re:ReVanced by huseyinkeles on Friday March 25, 2022 @12:15PM (#30803969)
Bob Vance from Vance Refrigeration /s
Re:ReVanced by a_chris on Friday March 25, 2022 @12:56PM (#30804550)
I know I would find a comment like this! Love you guys
Re:ReVanced by bobkazamakis on Friday March 25, 2022 @02:22PM (#30805491)
sometimes the flowers arrange themselves, Jim.
Re:ReVanced by alasano on Friday March 25, 2022 @01:30PM (#30804950)
I think my positive perception of self named software dates back to Irfanview.

I've been using it since 1998, never felt the need to change to anything else.

Re:ReVanced by rzzzt on Friday March 25, 2022 @03:48PM (#30806377)
ACDSee and XnView were also big players at the time. I also faintly remember one with a panda in its logo, but can't tell what it was...
Re:ReVanced by PragmaticPulp on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:30AM (#30802594)
> 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 by lewispollard on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:50AM (#30802857)
Vanced didn't redistribute a modified version of the Youtube app, they distributed a "manager" app which downloaded the official app's APKs and applied the patches at runtime. (edit: actually, I'm not 100% sure of that, since I've always used a rooted version which does apply patches at runtime, but I'm unsure about non-rooted.)

They were taken down for using a similar enough logo to Youtube that Google lawyered them into stopping that way, not for any kind of infringement in terms of software.

Re:ReVanced by Mogzol on Friday March 25, 2022 @08:59PM (#30808396)
> They were taken down for using a similar enough logo to Youtube that Google lawyered them into stopping that way, not for any kind of infringement in terms of software.

Is there a source for this? Seems like they could have just changed the logo if that was the case, no?

Re:ReVanced by 3np on Friday March 25, 2022 @09:50PM (#30808612)
It does seem that way but it is the official motivation from the creators.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30747352

Re:ReVanced by mkdirp on Saturday March 26, 2022 @12:28AM (#30809246)
> 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.

From their github org and an faq (I can't remember where I saw it), it seems they're planning on patching the YouTube app on your device, unlike what Vanced did.

And yes, it will be a game of whack-a-mole but since you can download individual versions of apps and only update when you want, I believe breakage will be quite limited.

Re:ReVanced by hijinks on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:20AM (#30802492)
best part of vanced was the ability to background youtube so you can listen to music with the screen being locked
Re:ReVanced by convery on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:28AM (#30802570)
BTW, Firefox on mobile lets you do that as well.
Re:ReVanced by entropicdrifter on Friday March 25, 2022 @12:54PM (#30804508)
Firefox for Android also supports uBlock Origin
Re:ReVanced by Normille on Friday March 25, 2022 @02:58PM (#30805853)
..but, unfortunately doesn't have text-reflow.

Yandex Browser has text-reflow and used to support uBlock Origin [and other extensions] too. Now it no longer supports installing uBO. So Android currently has two browsers, each of which is half useful!

Re:ReVanced by The_Colonel on Friday March 25, 2022 @05:14PM (#30807114)
Note that Yandex is a Russian company and as such carries significant risks.
Re:ReVanced by 3np on Friday March 25, 2022 @09:56PM (#30808647)
You are not wrong but the same can be said for PRC and USA companies. Mentioning that every time the products and services of these three countries are mentioned is not interesting.
Re:ReVanced by ChuckNorris89 on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:32AM (#30802629)
New pipe will do that too. Or just watching the video in the phone browser.
Re:ReVanced by Tenoke on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:39AM (#30802698)
It doesn't work in android chrome, I just tried. It does work in Firefox though.
Re:ReVanced by izacus on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:38AM (#30802689)
Or you know, paying a few bucks for the music via Premium subscription.
Re:ReVanced by ChuckNorris89 on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:39AM (#30802701)
>Or you know, paying a few bucks for the music via Premium subscription.

Or you know, not lecturing people off your high horse on giving their hard earned cash to your corporate overlords on top of their private data, and instead, letting them use the internet as they please.

A few bucks here and a few bucks there adds up significantly for those not on Bay Area wages and getting hit by rampant inflation and energy prices.

You can donate to the creators Patreon, PayPal or Crypto wallets, if you wish to support them.

If YouTube were a boot-strapped start-up in a garage, I would totally agree with your point, but instead Google-YouTube is a multi trillion dollar monopoly and I'm already giving them my private data they monetize, which is more than enough, there's no way I'm giving them my hard earned cash on top of my private data, while they engage in anti consumer behavior by removing the dislike button and using other dark patterns to squeeze view time out of small creators and "maximize engagement" out of their user base.

Re:ReVanced by izacus on Friday March 25, 2022 @01:39PM (#30805060)
That's some serious mental gymnastic you have going there just to avoid paying musicians a few bucks to listen to their music.

Don't worry, pirates have gone through these mental gymnastics to feel better about their entitlement since the time Napster appeared.

Still doesn't change the fact that the author of that post refuses to pay a shitty 12 bucks per months to get access to all the music he wants and pay both the infrastructure provider and the musician performing the tracks. They could easily pay for Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, iTunes or any of the other services if "YouTube is such an evil monster monopoly". But it's not about that is it?

I wonder if you're so lenient when someone refuses to pay for your own companys services and just wants them for free.

Re:ReVanced by daveloyall on Friday March 25, 2022 @02:26PM (#30805522)
That's some serious mental gymnastics there, too. I refuse to pay for YT premium because of the abusive relationship Alphabet/Google/YouTube has with my family, my devices, and me.

Bless the musicians, every one.

Re:ReVanced by FranchuFranchu on Friday March 25, 2022 @04:24PM (#30806694)
12 bucks is about two or three days of work where I live. I will do everything that is in my hands that won't get me arrested to save money and improve my quality of life. Google does the same, so why shouldn't I?
Re:ReVanced by MMS21 on Monday March 28, 2022 @08:34AM (#30829819)
Look up how much YouTube and Spotify pay musicians. I'm not sure how little the others pay in comparison but I assume their cut is the industry standard.

Paying £12 a month doesn't bring back dislikes, doesn't remove sponsored segments and doesn't improve the comment section that is ripe with bots.

>I wonder if you're so lenient when someone refuses to pay for your own companys services and just wants them for free.

I wouldn't make my own companies DRM so easily breakable, are Google too poor or something?

Re:ReVanced by LinAGKar on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:33AM (#30803396)
It's not "a few bucks", it's like $12 a month, more than most streaming services, for the privilege of having it not pause the video when you lock the phone. Which it shouldn't be doing in the first place. Also this yet one more thing on top of the subscriptions you already have. Can't subscribe to all of them.
Re:ReVanced by sofixa on Friday March 25, 2022 @01:52PM (#30805212)
There are more features than that. You get music streaming ( usually in the $£$ 10 range), no ads and offline downloads. It's really not a bad deal, especially shared on the family plan.
Re:ReVanced by LinAGKar on Friday March 25, 2022 @03:20PM (#30806103)
Losing ads, sure, and it would be good to pay them something, but IDGAF about YouTube Music (I have Spotify for that) or their watered-down download function (which I'm pretty sure is locked to playing the download in their app). So the 50 SEK (5.32 USD) difference between Premium Lite and Premium would be purely to make it not pause.
Re:ReVanced by formerkrogeremp on Friday March 25, 2022 @12:03PM (#30803826)
I'm not sure it's worth the $20 per month for a family plan of up to five either.
Re:ReVanced by sofixa on Friday March 25, 2022 @01:55PM (#30805236)
$4/person for music streaming, and all the video on the internet, without ads? What is a fair price for you?
Re:ReVanced by adalu on Friday March 25, 2022 @03:05PM (#30805939)
zero because they didn't do the creation work in the first place and they don't share their revenue with the creators. So how about that?
Re:ReVanced by ripdog on Friday March 25, 2022 @03:48PM (#30806378)
The hosting of an unlimited number of videos of (almost) unlimited length at up to 8k resolution for an indefinite length of time is worth nothing to you? I'm incredibly grateful that there is such a vast video archive on the internet with such liberal terms for video uploading and playback.

And Google does revenue share with creaters. Heard of the YouTube partner program? Partners receive money per view from people who watch ads or have premium, and premium views are worth more.

Re:ReVanced by sofixa on Friday March 25, 2022 @06:14PM (#30807517)
They share revenues with creators, and enable them to have a massive reach by hosting unlimited amount of video for free.
Re:ReVanced by formerkrogeremp on Saturday March 26, 2022 @03:44PM (#30814747)
I do pay that much for no ads and music streaming, but I'm not sure that giving Google more money in a monthly subscription on top of the money they generate from serving me ads is the best use of my funds. I pay that much because I hate YouTube ads. YMMV.
Re:ReVanced by LinAGKar on Friday March 25, 2022 @03:21PM (#30806105)
And if you don't care about their music service?
Re:ReVanced by ATsch on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:22AM (#30803257)
I pay for youtube premium and still use Vanced for all of it's advanced features, but background playback is useful for far more than music.
Re:ReVanced by Hasnep on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:45AM (#30802775)
YouTube premium isn't available in all countries yet, although it's in way more countries than it was s few years ago
Re:ReVanced by judge2020 on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:40AM (#30802710)
No, obviously YouTube should be a free service with no ads and no subscription. The content is someone else's anyways.
Re:ReVanced by fuzzylightbulb on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:43AM (#30802749)
youtube should be regulated as the monopoly it is.
Re:ReVanced by dvngnt_ on Friday March 25, 2022 @01:45PM (#30805130)
paying still doesn't give you all the features Vance offers for free so no
Re:ReVanced by zoover2020 on Friday March 25, 2022 @02:26PM (#30805528)
NewPipe does this, too :)
Re:ReVanced by Sakos on Friday March 25, 2022 @05:21PM (#30807165)
The most important part of Vanced is it allowed you to login to your account. NewPipe isn't an alternative to Vanced. It fills a completely different (more privacy-focused) niche.
Re:ReVanced by lfkdev on Friday March 25, 2022 @11:18AM (#30803196)
apparently??? it was such an amazing app used by millions and by me every single day, i was devastated to hear it was discontinued
Re:ReVanced by Aissen on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:42AM (#30802742)
To make it clear, personal opinion: this is piracy. Use yt-dlp, NewPipe, SmartTubeNext, invidious, VLC, whatever. Or pay for Premium.

But re-using a proprietary app and patching it is IMHO crossing the line.

Re:ReVanced by judge2020 on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:46AM (#30802797)
It's at least 'profiteering' off of the current state of YouTube, where anyone that uses an ad-blocking mechanism (desktop or mobile) is effectively being subsidized by the premium subscribers and mobile users without adblock.
Re:ReVanced by 2Gkashmiri on Saturday March 26, 2022 @07:34AM (#30810968)
profiteering is earning. what are the devs of vanced earning?
Re:ReVanced by judge2020 on Saturday March 26, 2022 @10:24AM (#30812050)
I mean the users using any ad blocking mechanism, including (re)vanced or simply ublock origin. YouTube isn't free for Google to host.
Re:ReVanced by 2Gkashmiri on Saturday March 26, 2022 @10:37AM (#30812193)
that is not same as profiteering. leeching maybe but "profiteering" is what brave does with replacing google ads with their own so that they show their ads and earn instead of google. that is not what anyone with ad block is doing..

nothing in life is free. everyone knows that. you and me know that. we use adblock regardless of that knowledge. how is this argument used against vanced now since we have accepted the necessity for ublock orign?

Re:ReVanced by kaba0 on Saturday March 26, 2022 @06:16PM (#30815867)
Also, it’s not like youtube isn’t popular exactly due to the freely generated content on it, not in spite of their hosting costs.
Re:ReVanced by lern_too_spel on Friday March 25, 2022 @10:51AM (#30802866)
If they're not distributing the patched application, I don't see why this is any worse than using an unauthorized YouTube client.
Re:ReVanced by mdoms on Friday March 25, 2022 @01:36PM (#30805029)
They were distributing it.
Re:ReVanced by lern_too_spel on Friday March 25, 2022 @02:07PM (#30805356)
Revanced is not distributing it. Aissen said this is piracy, not Vanced.
Re:ReVanced by Aissen on Friday March 25, 2022 @04:18PM (#30806631)
Agreed, I was talking about Vanced, my comment wasn't clear. Revanced is a bit more gray, but still very dark.