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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world

With Reddit shutting down its API setting a precedent in the corporate tech world (and Reddit was a major outlier in that a ton of their users are technical minded and support third party clients, YouTube does not have that kind of userbase and will not get backlash for it), Twitter doing whatever the fuck they're doing, and Google already hellbent on destroying ad blockers, the days of Newpipe, Invidious, and Freetube are numbered. Wouldn't be surprised if they implement Netflix level DRM tomorrow that makes alt clients impossible. I say savour your alt clients while you can guys, you won't be able to soon.

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[-] davidgro@lemmy.world 57 points 1 year ago

NewPipe at least already doesn't use the API, it scrapes the website.

... Which it just occurred to me might be one of the reasons Google is pushing that web integrity thing. Dang.

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

All the web integrity thing would do is force them to use a specific client when accessing YouTube to scrape their site.

Putting shit out on your publicly accessible website enables all who access it to download anything you make available there.

This is just regular cat and mouse.

If my YouTube experience goes away, my hobbies will get some tlc. My reddit experience barely faltered with my transition to Lemmy

We've been through all of this before and we'll go through all of it again.

[-] Corngood@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

All the web integrity thing would do is force them to use a specific client when accessing YouTube to scrape their site.

The problem is none of the attested browsers will let you to use them in this way.

We already have DRM for video on the web. I believe it would be a similar problem to getting WideVine L1 content from e.g. Netflix in an open source app.

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ask me why I invested in Vimeo.

But seriously, it will just make competitors thrive.

I'll pay for a nebula subscription before I sit through a single YouTube ad.

[-] heimchen@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago

Yea I think, if newpipe stops, I would switch to nebula. It would even help my yt addiction and I would support my youtubers without giving a share to youtube.

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[-] nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info 37 points 1 year ago

all of these are scrapers, so they will work unless YouTube gets rid of its web version

[-] kenbw2@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Or if Google implements some kind of feature that requires your browser to vouch that it's not gonna play shenanigans with the page.

Nah, nobody would be that crazy.

[-] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Would this new thing they’re doing to chrome stop it?

[-] kenbw2@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

That's exactly the sort if thing they could use it for

[-] MeowdyPardner@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

I think they mean something like widevine a la Netflix. Granted there are bypasses for some levels, but that could be a problem imo, iiuc that's why there aren't any alternate frontends for Netflix or HBO. I think that would also potentially mean issues playing YouTube in chromium or firefox on Linux if they used L1 (not sure what the current state of widevine on Linux is, last time I had Netflix I couldn't watch on Linux and had to use my phone or Chromecast)

[-] madcow@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Or until they implement a trust model that denies access to uncertified user-agents?

[-] StewartGilligan@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

Invidious doesn't use YouTube's API. It merely requests content from YouTube either directly or through a proxy. So, I don't think it'll disappear forever unless the developers stop working on it. It's probably gonna be a game of cat and mouse where YouTube figures out how to break Invidious, and the devs keep finding a workaround.

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[-] jfx@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 year ago

Well there's Kodi's Netflix interface, looks pretty alternative to me: https://github.com/CastagnaIT/plugin.video.netflix

There's always a way

[-] adibis@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

You can't save anything unless there's a YouTube competitor. Google can do whatever it wants.

[-] CustodialTeapot@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Oh, thought this was an article with facts and figures, no someone's doomsaying and fear mongering....

Many YouTube's third party clients don't use an API and having a public API with built in ads is a gold mine that many of YouTube's embeds rely on for revenue. Doubt they'll destroy that anytime soon.

Along with that, many of YouTube's top creators are already looking for alternatives, floatplane, nebula etc... It just takes a mass exodus to kick start them. And you bet Google is aware of that.

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[-] Waitwuhtt@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I welcome the rise of their replacements.

[-] Thrubst@lemmyjapan.com 4 points 1 year ago

Was talking to a friend who is a senior tech dude about the YT viewing habits of our kids. Asked if he had any recommendations for alt clients and he said… just pay for YT premium 🙃

[-] sanpo@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

To be fair, the guy just probably didn't want to become your tech support for life. :P

If you care, you can try this, assuming you meant clients for TV: https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext

[-] ech0@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I'm about to have a daughter and was thinking about this also.

I have been using Tube Archivist for months and its exactly what you need. You can control what subscriptions they watch, set download limits, etc.

https://www.tubearchivist.com/

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[-] JasSmith@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Google isn't going to kill YouTube's API any time soon. It's how billions of videos are viewable in apps and pages across the internet. They make far more money on that than any lost revenue by people using third party apps. Shutting down API access would be one of the most impactful events to the internet in history. Major lost viewership and advertising revenue coupled with extreme consumer backlash. Most devastating would be developer backlash, as they would all need to scramble to find alternatives.

[-] gobbling871@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

They successfully went after Vanced 2 years ago so it's shouldn't be too far fetched for them.

[-] Zetaphor@zemmy.cc 12 points 1 year ago

And yet here I am using Revanced, which is even better than Vanced was

https://revanced.app/

[-] adibis@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Doesn't work for a lot of accounts anymore. It plays one minute for me, first minute of a video and then dies.

New account works. Incognito works.

[-] MetaCubed@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

There's a new patch for revanced which spoofs the client to fix this issue. Unfortunately it's an optional patch that a lot of people miss, so they still have issues. I haven't run into the "play a little bit then lock up" issue since the patch released

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They went after vanced because they made money (they tried selling nfts) from from modifying google's proprietary code. NewPipe team wrote everything themselves and dont make money from google code (they probably make no money at all)

[-] nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info 1 points 1 year ago

it's a common theory that the only reason they went after Vanced is because the Vanced team tried to monetize the mod by introducing NFTs

[-] TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Many people in modding and fan communities convince themselves that companies only go after projects if they try to make money, but we also see that happening with free projects all the time, if they get enough attention.

Seeing that Google is already sending warnings to people who try to watch YouTube with adblockers, I don't think that's what made the difference.

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Nah, we’ll just switch to webscraping if APIs get locked behind a paywall. Let’s see how those sites handle it when millions of people are using a scraping based client in the future. I can imagine it feeling a lot like being the victim a relentless ddos attack.

[-] scarilog@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

This is exactly what the proposed Web Integrity API seeks to prevent. That's what makes it terrifying.

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this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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