Here's a much simpler approach: use the Brave browser on iOS and use the YouTube website.

It blocks all YouTube ads, allows background playback and picture-in-picture, etc.

You also get all of your regular YouTube features, like recommendations, etc.

I haven't used the official YouTube app since.

Using the Brave browser on iPadOS at least, YouTube will just refuse to served HD content after one video. Enjoy your 4K video downscaled to 360p.

works for me without downscaling.

Using Brave to defeat YouTube ads.....ironic.

This seems great, and it's open source, too: https://github.com/yattee/yattee

And there's a native Mac app! And tvOS!

Maybe I'm just getting old, but as I was reading through the list of features this doesn't have, I just got more and more excited. My watch pattern is pretty much watching videos to solve problems or research some particular thing, and I feel like I find most of them through Google or YouTube search. The recommendations can be pretty good, but there's always those clickbaity, completely unrelated ones mixed in, trying to pull me into a totally separate rabbit hole.

Just hopefully Google does not follow the Reddit and Twitter train.

Does this exist for Apple TV as well?

It does.

Or just pay for YouTube Premium?

I pay for Premium. Sadly it doesn't stop creators from inserting their own ~ads~ sponsorships into the videos directly so Sponsorblock is still a non-negotiable component of Youtube for me.

I highly recommend Nebula. Not only is it adfree and sponsor free, it’s also much more curated than YouTube so the odds of finding good quality videos there are very high.

Plus I paid for the lifetime subscription there so … no subscription for me.

I looked at all (I think?) of the people on Nebula. I only recognize a few and none of them are people I follow on Youtube. The average quality might be higher, but it doesn't seem like Nebula is a platform for the niche YouTubers that make the platform worthwile for me.

16 USD a month just to block ads seems ridiculous.

It's cheaper if you pay annually (129usd, afair). And YT Premium also includes access to YT Music, which is also ad-free. Plus the annual subscription doesn't auto-renew.

$130 usd a year for youtube. Wow. Thank you devs for ublock origin.

So there is no option to pay just to block all adds, just some bundle that blocks some ads

And it is inferior since it lacks sponsor block. I have premium that I use on my phone and it is pretty annoying that pretty much each video still has ads in them in the form of a sponsor segment

At some point I will probably cancel my subscription and use an unofficial app with sponsor block. And that aldo hopefully blocks shorts ad well

Musi on iOS [0] is a fantastic YouTube client which removes ads. The trick, albeit slightly inconvenient, is to copy/paste the exact YT title you wish to view. The search functionality isn’t that good. Some things live like streams don’t work however this has never been an issue for me.

[0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/musi-simple-music-streaming/id...

Oh this is amazing! Even works on iOS 15! Thanks for the recommendation.

* * *

I heard the next version of iPhone will be forced to allow sideloading, so you could just install this app without jumping through hoops. Thanks, EU!

It's already on the Appstore, you just need to setup a Invidious or Piped instance to watch YouTube.

There's also NewPipe on Android:

https://newpipe.net/

and LibreTube:

https://github.com/libre-tube/LibreTube

and revanced: https://revanced.app/

Yattee + Tailscale + Piped greatly increased my consumption of Youtube videos.

Missing most of the features mentioned (recommendations, watch history, google account, shorts) are all pros instead of cons to me. Just an app for intentionally watching content in a no-frills private environment, it's refreshing.

How do you find new videos to watch?

I have two modes of watching YouTube:

1. When I want to learn about something. Then I use a search engine to find the video, and your setup would be fine

2. When I want to relax and watch generally interesting informative videos. Or sometimes comedy or animation.

I subscribe to a range of channels and use the YT recommendations for the second mode (which sucks but is barely usable).

How do people watching YT with no account handle this second mode of watching?

A lot of these alternatives allow you to keep track of subscriptions without a Google account and actually show a chronological feed (which IMO is one of the most annoying things about the official YouTube app). For mindless watching TikTok is my default.

* * *

Any quick start guide to setting this up (e.g for newbies)?

I use Vinegar[1] with Safari on all platforms which provides HTML5 video (and PiP etc) but with the other YouTube features. I have the Subscriptions page bookmarked so I get a reverse chronological list from my favourite creators. You could also use channel RSS to do this without an account.

[1] https://apps.apple.com/app/id1591303229

I also use Vinegar, it's great. I recommend the developer's other apps, too. They tend to be simple apps which do one useful thing well, and also have a sense of humour.

Brave on iOS is my choice. It also lets you download videos for offline viewing.