Get https://github.com/yattee/yattee
I've been watching youtube without ads on all Apple hardware for years.
I use invidious as backend.
https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
Absolutely fabulous.
In PipePipe: NewPipe hard fork implementing SponsorBlockiv-org
invidious
Crystal2018–2026
iv-org / invidious
invidious
Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube
89Distinct people
132Mentions
2Explicit recommenders
26KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube
GitHub
Where it is used
What people are saying
I love invidious but two or three times a month, youtube rolls out an update that breaks it. eg, last week (not yet bypassed): https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/issues/4734
ksherlock used a recommendation phrase. 3 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- zedeus/nitter · linked in 9 of the same discussions
- yattee/yattee · linked in 6 of the same discussions
- teampiped/piped · linked in 4 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year132 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2018-04-14 11:21:01 UTC to 2026-09-26 18:00:44 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 16 | 2 | 14 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 24 | 3 | 21 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 22 | 0 | 22 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 1 | 10 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 27 | 2 | 25 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 19 | 3 | 16 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Invidious
An open source alternative front-end to YouTube
Website
•
Instances list
•
FAQ
•
Documentation
•
Contribute
•
Donate
Chat with us:
Screenshots
Player
Preferences
Subscriptions
Features
User features
Lightweight
No ads
No tracking
No JavaScript required
Light/Dark themes
Customizable homepage
Subscriptions independent from Google
Notifications for all subscribed channels
Audio-only mode (with background play on mobile)
Support for YouTube comments
Available in many languages, thanks to our translators
Data import/export
Import subscriptions from YouTube, NewPipe and FreeTube
Import watch history from YouTube and NewPipe
Export subscriptions to NewPipe and FreeTube
Import/Export Invidious user data
Technical features
Embedded video support
Developer API
Does not use official YouTube APIs
No Contributor License Agreement (CLA)
Quick start
Using Invidious:
Select a public instance from the list and start watching videos right now!
Hosting Invidious:
Follow the installation instructions
Documentation
The full documentation can be accessed online at https://docs.invidious.io/
The documentation's source code is available in this repository:
https://github.com/iv-org/documentation
Extensions
We highly recommend the use of Privacy Redirect,
a browser extension that automatically redirects YouTube URLs to any Invidious instance and replaces
embedded YouTube videos on other websites with Invidious.
The documentation contains a list of browser extensions that we recommended to use along with Invidious.
You can read more here: https://docs.invidious.io/applications/
Contribute
Code
Fork it ( https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/fork ).
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature).
Stage your files (git add .).
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some feature').
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature).
Create a new pull request ( https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/compare ).
Translations
We use Weblate to manage Invidious translations.
You can suggest new translations and/or correction here: https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/invidious/.
Creating an account is not required, but recommended, especially if you want to contribute regularly.
Weblate also allows you to log-in with major SSO providers like GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket, Google, ...
Projects using Invidious
A list of projects and extensions for or utilizing Invidious can be found in the documentation: https://docs.invidious.io/applications/
Liability
We take no responsibility for the use of our tool, or external instances
provided by third parties. We strongly recommend you abide by the valid
official regulations in your country. Furthermore, we refuse liability
for any inappropriate use of Invidious, such as illegal downloading.
This tool is provided to you in the spirit of free, open software.
You may view the LICENSE in which this software is provided to you here.
Limitation of Liability.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS
THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY
GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE
USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF
DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD
PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS),
EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGES.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
132 sourcesThe solution is to run your own instance, create a few accounts for it to use and put it behind a reverse proxy with basic auth. Hand out logins to a few people and it will remain useable. If you put your instance out in the open it will sooner or later end up temporarily blocked - I tried this for a few years, same results every time - but smaller instances remain useable.
It isn't hard to run an instance, just park it next to your SearXNG [1], Invidious [2], Redlib [3],PeerTube, ... instances.
[1] https://github.com/searxng/searxng
[2] https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
[3] https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib
In Nitter has more working instances than before the takedownsMandatory shoutout to Invidious:
https://invidious.io
https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
An accessible interface to YouTube content without tracking, using a decentralized network of community-run instances that scrape, rather than API-call, site data.
[EDIT]
Also Yattee doing the Lord's work:
https://github.com/yattee/yattee
Privacy oriented video player for iOS, tvOS and macOS with Invidious support.
In YouTube now world's largest media company, topping DisneyPeople here might be interested in Invidious[0], a FOSS web frontend for YouTube. By default it shows 4 videos per row, but that can be trivially adjusted with CSS. It's a little light on features, but otherwise very customizable.
[0]: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
In Someone at YouTube Needs Glasses: The Prophecy Has Been FulfilledTried [Invidious](https://github.com/iv-org/invidious)? It's really lightweight. I host my own instance: https://iv.duti.dev and it works wonders (Librewolf with strictest fingerprint resist)
In Ask HN: Does anyone else notice YouTube causing 100% CPU usage and stattering?https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
Alternative YouTube front end
In Show HN: YouTube Audio PlayerYou might be able to rig something up with invidious? https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
In Australia widens teen social media ban to YouTube, scraps exemptionMaybe you could rig something up with invidious? https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
In TikTok Is Harming Children at an Industrial ScaleIf you're running or using Invidious [1] - a YouTube proxy service - you're running or using Crystal.
[1] https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
In Crystal 1.16.0YouTube currently bans every IP address with a lot of guest traffic. They have also banned all datacenter IP ranges.
Sometimes a "poToken" (a magic string that's used to 'validate' a client to prove that it's an official client) can be used to bypass this, but most of the time it's easier to just sign in with a Google account (which is also dangerous because YouTube has been banning accounts with unusual activity since last year[0])
Nowadays, most third party clients either use a browser/WebView to generate a poToken[1], or directly require a user to enter it for downloading[2]
I feel like the parent commenters issue is related to this, and it looks like there's an ongoing PR to implement support for it[3] (Invidious already had supported poTokens, hovewer their implementation were setting a single token in the config, and AFAIK that meth
Read the rest
Market response:
Searching: <https://github.com/iv-org/invidious>
Playing: <https://mpv.io/>
Also, For Anyone's Info, black-on-red is impossible to read on monochrome displays. As with e-ink. Lesson learned as an anti-copy tactic for uni note-taking services, back in the day.
(Possibly not YouTube's core demographic, but a blog post shouldn't do that.)
In YouTube's New HueInvidious is in a precarious position right now: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/issues/4734#issuecomment...
In Juno for YouTube has been removed from the App StoreProbably the latter. yt-dlp can be detected and it yields account / IP bans, it seems. They've been going back and forth around the blocks for weeks but only by claiming to be different devices, each time they do the checks are added for the new client and they have to move onto the next. There's a finite number of those.
Here's a comment from Invidious on the matter:
https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/issues/4734#issuecomment...
In Bots, so many botshttps://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends
Some of these are open source and easy to run, like https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
In Freetube is the best way to watch YouTubeMy browsers are heavily ad-blocked and privacy-tuned.
To the extent I still do, I mostly access YT via:
- Links posted elsewhere (mostly HN and the Fediverse)
- Alternate front-ends such as a Piped (<https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped>) or Invidious (<https://github.com/iv-org/invidious>) instance. Both of these are increasingly attacked by YT, and Invidious largely doesn't play locally, Piped seems to work more consistently. Search still works fine however.
- Copying the video URLs and playing them via a third-party, non-browser-based video/media app, usually mpv, though occasionally VLC or others. This might be full video or audio-only. (I often simply listen to videos, treating them as podcasts.)
For someone who's interacting with the site (rating videos, posting comments, posting content) you'll likely have to bend to YT's demands
Read the rest
. Options here include specific browsers, browser profiles, or browser containers which are tuned to what it is YouTube wants, whilst you leave the rest of your browsing configured as you prefer it.
Or, you know, walk. Exit, voice, loyalty: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit,_Voice,_and_Loyalty>
Showing the 15 most recent of 132 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.